‘We feel that target on our back’: Australia motivated by World T20 favourites tag

Australia are happy to be the hunted. And Alyssa Healy, captain of the all-conquering women’s cricket team, expects her side to relish being challenged like never before as they chase a historic fourth consecutive T20 World Cup title.

The six-time champions remain the side to beat as the likes of India and England, and last year’s runners-up South Africa, again try to knock them off their perch. Australia have become one of the most dominant sides in any sport across more than a decade of success, but for their budding rivals the hope is that the growth of women’s franchise cricket, and the greater opportunities for more players to be exposed to top-tier competition, has at least closed the gap.

“It can be quite daunting at times, because teams do come really, really hard at us,” Healy says. “We feel that target on our back at times. But the pleasing thing is that it actually motivates this group to get better and, not necessarily stay ahead of the pack, that’s not really the right way to say it, but just to continue to evolve and get better and to keep wanting to win titles and keep teams away.

“It’s a real positive for our group in that regard, they don’t see it as a real concern. It’s actually a driver, and I think that’s a really pleasing place to be.”

Since being knocked out of the inaugural Women’s T20 World Cup in 2009 by eventual champions England in the semi-finals, Australia have reached all seven tournament deciders. The only blemish sits in the middle of that streak when West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor and fellow opener Hayley Matthews lifted their side to a shock victory in the 2016 final.

Australia have since claimed three consecutive T20 World Cup titles and added a Commonwealth Games gold medal while winning 72 of their 90 completed internationals in the format. That includes a stretch of 24 T20Is without defeat between October 2021 and July 2023.

View image in fullscreen Healy hits out during a T20 against New Zealand last month. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

There have been five defeats in the format since then but Australia have shown signs of returning to their formidable best in a seven-match winning streak against South Africa, Bangladesh and New Zealand as they eye becoming the first side – women’s or men’s – to claim four World Cup titles in a row in the same format. Like the prospect of staring down teams looking to make a statement against them, the Australia squad is embracing the idea of creating history on a global stage.

“We talk about it a lot and it’s actually a really easy conversation because this group’s really, really driven at evolving themselves and as players and as a team as well,” Healy says. “It’s easy to talk about because, even the 21-year-olds in our side have had new experiences over the last 12 to 18 months in particular, and they’re finding ways to continue to stay ahead of the opposition.

“They’re not settled with how they’re going. They just want to keep getting better, and I think that extends right through the group, even to the older players like myself.”

Healy will captain Australia at a World Cup for the first time in any format, after taking the reins in June last year as Meg Lanning took time away from the game and later retired from international cricket. The 34-year-old played a key role in driving the team’s success alongside her good friend Lanning, but the primary leadership role could sit at odds with Healy’s easy-going and jovial nature.

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“It’s probably something that, reflecting on the first 12 months of it, I not necessarily went away from, but I think you can easily take on this different persona as captain,” Healy says. “Automatically it made me a more grumpy human being, which I’m really not. I’m quite laid back and chilled in my approach to the game as a whole but, all of a sudden, there are extra pressures and expectations on you and you sort of feel that.

“It’s really important, and I have to stress that to the group as well, for me to stay authentic to who I am and my values as a person. I’m obviously at the back end of my career and, for me, I’ve had a really enjoyable career so far, and I’ve always played with a smile on my face. So it’s about reminding myself that that hasn’t changed just because I’m tossing the coin.”

Healy concedes that for the first time in her career she thinks “any of the 10 teams can win this World Cup” but is confident Australia have the depth and emerging talent to again take them all the way. Phoebe Litchfield, Darcie Brown and Annabel Sutherland are among the rising stars aged 21 to 22 that Healy likes to point to, but Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Tayla Vlaeminck are also set to play critical roles at the tournament while in their mid 20s.

“The young players in our squad will win us this World Cup, I firmly believe that,” Healy says. “The experience that we’ve got within the side will continue to do our job and play our role, but I think the excitement and the freedom that the young generation are playing with at the moment, and the talent that’s in that group, they’re going to do amazing things for us.”

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