Ashleigh Gardner believes Australia are nonetheless the very best ladies’s staff on the planet, even after dropping their T20 and ODI World Cup titles within the final yr.
Talking forward of India ladies tour of Australia, Gardner sounded assured about Australia’s possibilities within the dwelling sequence scheduled for February. The tour will function three T20Is, three ODIs, and a one-off Check.
Gardner admitted that latest World Cups have examined Australia in methods they weren’t used to. She stated the staff was pushed into unfamiliar strain conditions and did not win a number of key moments when it mattered most.
“We’ve actually been put beneath strain just lately. However I can nonetheless sit right here confidently saying that we’re the very best staff on the planet,” Gardner stated.
Australia’s outcomes over the past 12 to 18 months nonetheless present their total dominance. They’ve misplaced solely two matches in that interval, each coming in World Cup semifinals. One defeat was in opposition to South Africa ladies’s cricket staff within the T20 World Cup, and the opposite got here in opposition to India ladies’s cricket staff within the ODI World Cup.
Gardner accepted that India arrive in Australia with rising perception. India’s latest run, together with their ODI World Cup semifinal win over Australia, has boosted their confidence.
“India’s going to come back throughout with quite a lot of confidence, as they need to. They’ve clearly performed some actually good cricket just lately,” she stated.
Whereas Gardner feels dwelling circumstances will work in Australia’s favour, she made it clear the main target is now on bettering the psychological facet of the sport. She burdened that successful small moments beneath strain can resolve matches on the highest degree.
“Simply successful these small moments in these high-pressure conditions, which, in the end in a World Cup, while you’re taking part in in finals cricket, you want to have the ability to do,” Gardner defined.
She added that sharper decision-making and psychological readability shall be key as Australia look to regain their aura of dominance.
“It’s ensuring that we all know the psychological facet of our recreation as nicely is in the very best place that it may be,” she stated.
The upcoming sequence in opposition to India is being seen as a significant check. For Australia, it’s a probability to reply after lacking out on each white-ball world titles. For India, it’s one other step in proving they’ll problem the very best, even away from dwelling.
