Who will lead Australia after Alyssa Healy's retirement - Here's what we know
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Who will lead Australia after Alyssa Healy's retirement - Here's what we know")
Alyssa Healy Photograph: (AFP)
Healy’s retirement is likely to lead to other changes as well, with Georgia Voll expected to move up the batting order and Beth Mooney set to take over the wicketkeeping role.
Cricket Australia faces a significant leadership call after Alyssa Healy decided to retire from international cricket after the upcoming multi-format home series against India in Feb-March. Healy's retirement means that Australia will enter the 2026 T20 World Cup later in the year with a new skipper. Healy announced the decision on Willow Talk podcast on Tuesday (Jan 13) and she will retire as one of the most successful players of all time with eight World Cup titles. Now, the question is how Australia will move forward in the captaincy role after her departure. To explore that, let’s take a look at an ESPN podcast report.
Who will lead Australia after Healy's retirement
Vice-captain Tahlia McGrath and allrounder Ashleigh Gardner are the main frontrunners to become the next captain of the Australian women’s team. The 28-year-old, Gardner, has boosted her chances over the past year after being appointed as captain of the Sydney Sixers in the latest WBBL season, taking over from Ellyse Perry. She continued to perform strongly while earning praise for her leadership style.
Gardner has been a reliable match-winner for Australia in all formats and has also acted as vice-captain when McGrath led the team in Healy’s absence. Before Healy announced her retirement, Gardner said she was not chasing the role but would be happy to take it on if it was in the team’s best interest.
"It's not something that I ever had ambitions to do, but if the opportunities come up, absolutely, I'd be happy to do that. So, whatever the team needs, I'll try to perform for whatever that looks like," said Gardner.
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Whereas, McGrath has captained Australia 15 times when Healy was unavailable and was one of the world’s top T20 players. Recently, however, she has struggled for form, including being moved down to no.7 position in the ODI batting order. Young guns Annabel Sutherland and Phoebe Litchfield are also seen as future captaincy options.
Healy’s retirement is likely to lead to other changes as well, with Georgia Voll expected to move up the batting order and Beth Mooney set to take over the wicketkeeping role.
