MELBOURNE: Australia are sweating on captain Alyssa Healy's availability for the historic day-night Women's Ashes Test against England starting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground here on Thursday. Healy completed a full training session two days out despite battling a stress injury in her foot that saw her miss the entire T20I series while wearing a moon boot.
Healy participated fully in Australia's main training session at the MCG, showing no signs of pain or restriction in her right foot.
She began with a running session alongside six teammates, including Ashleigh Gardner, who is recovering from a calf injury. Both players moved well, completing multiple high-intensity laps of the MCG. Healy followed this with short sprints and participated in the fielding drills, working in the outfield without any issues. Healy then had an extensive batting session in the nets, facing pace, spin, and throwdowns, handling all without discomfort.
Before the session, coach Shelley Nitschke stated that no decision had been made on Healy’s availability. The team management will assess how she recovers before making a final call.
"She's going as well as can be expected. I think you've all seen her out in a boot and taking some weight off of that foot, " Nitschke said. "She will have a test today, and we'll just sort of see where that lands and have some discussions about that, whether or not we think she's going to be okay for a four-day Test."
Nitschke said they would try and leave the decision as late as possible but they were wary of creating problems around role clarity given Healy's significance as the captain and a senior batter.
"We don't have to actually lock it in until the toss, " Nitschke said. "But obviously there's repercussions around that with who's the captain and what our line-up looks like. So I think people sort of want to know their role coming in, so as soon as we can we will, but it certainly doesn't have to be today."
Nitschke stated that they would delay the decision as long as possible but were mindful of avoiding issues with role clarity, given Healy's importance as captain and a senior batter.
"I think it's just about keeping in mind what's best for the team and making sure we're putting the best team we can out there to perform, " Nitschke said.
"So that's always been front and foremost. But we don't play a lot of Tests, so there's sort of some emotion involved there, but we want to do what's best for the team and see what happens."
Nitschke confirmed that Ashleigh Gardner is fit and will play after recovering from her calf injury. Gardner completed her running, batting, and bowling drills without any issues and is expected to play a key role, following her match-winning performances in the third ODI and the 2023 Ashes Test in England.
Nitschke also acknowledged uncertainty over how Australia would structure their XI for the day-night Test. While spin has been crucial to Australia’s six white-ball victories in the series, the MCG has been one of the most seam-friendly pitches in long-form cricket since the drop-in wickets were revamped in 2019.
The pitch remained under covers throughout Tuesday evening, preventing either side from inspecting it ahead of the match.
"We certainly look at what the pitch has played like in whether it's Shield and the Test match, and then considering the pink ball as well and what that brings to the game, " Nitschke said.
"So we certainly do look at the results and how the wicket has played in the men's game because there's been no female longer format played here. And then obviously use, what's happened in the white-ball series as well as some intel to how we're matching up, " Nitschke said.