NEW DELHI: Former Australia cricketer Mel Jones believes Georgia Voll can be the next big talent coming from the team in their upcoming ODI series against India, saying that the batting prodigy showed during this year’s WBBL that nothing scares her.
Georgia is poised to open the batting with Pheobe Litchfield in the ODI series opener against India at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane on Thursday, in place of injured captain Alyssa Healy. In this year’s WBBL, Georgia made 330 runs in 12 games at a strike-rate of 144.73 for the Sydney Thunder.
“Georgia Voll has shown in the WBBL that nothing sort of fazes her. To score 97 not out at the MCG in a run chase (is impressive). So yes, we are in a transition phase, but I think when you look at the depth of domestic cricketers, I think Shelley Nitschke and the team will be reasonably confident they can manage it, ” said Mel on Fox Cricket’s Follow On podcast show.
Speaking further about the transition period Australia are on the doorstep of, Mel, who played five Tests and 61 ODIs, believes the leadership potential of Phoebe and Annabel Sutherland is good news for the current ODI World Cup holders.
"I think it is a period of transition which they would have seen coming for a number of years now, hence ... why you see Annabel Sutherland captaining the Melbourne Stars this year, Phoebe Litchfield captaining the Sydney Thunder and Sophie Molineux has captained the Melbourne Renegades for a number of years now.
"I think when you look through the transition piece with leadership, that they will be very, very happy with where things sit when you have three astute strong leaders, who are still developing, yes, but are wonderful cricketers with great cricket brains and are wonderful leaders. They could easily step up, whether it is a planned one or through injury. So they have done very well there."
At the same time, Mel noted there might be a concern over the depth of fast bowlers in Australia, especially after Tayla Vlaeminck was ruled out of rest of the summer due to a shoulder injury sustained in 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup in the UAE.
"There has probably been a bit of concern in and around the quicks with Vlaeminck out with a shoulder injury and Darcie Brown had the hip problems through the WBBL and is sort of being managed there, so in and around the quicks, you go, ‘Mmmm’.
"But then you have Chloe Ainsworth coming through and Lucy Hamilton, so there are some young guns coming through the system who potentially might be in a game earlier than they were expecting, but again, that is the sport. You get an opportunity and you run with it. With (our) spinners, we are looking good (and the) batters are coming through as well, " she said.