Australia’s journey to the T20 World Cup has hit an early stumbling block, with the team beginning its new era under Sophie Molineux with a rare series loss on home soil.
The 1-2 scoreline in India’s favour was Australia’s first T20 series defeat at home since November 2017, and their first in any T20I series since the 2023 Ashes in the UK.
With just three official T20Is remaining before the upcoming World Cup in England – alongside five practice matches planned in the UK – time is against Australia.
Speaking after Saturday’s loss at Adelaide Oval, Molineux was adamant there were plenty of positives, and lessons, to take from the three matches.
Context is also important, but not an excuse. Australia have been near-unbeatable at home for a decade, but had not played a T20I in 11 months coming into this series. Following the T20 World Cup semi-final defeat in late 2024, they had appeared to have found a fresh T20I groove with six consecutive wins to start 2025. However, more recent drop offs in form and the retirement of Alyssa Healy brought about some tweaks in personnel, roles and leadership for this series – and left questions to answer ahead of the mid-year ICC tournament.
Powerplay wickets
Smriti Mandhana’s 129 runs was the highest for the T20I series, despite India only batting for 5.1 overs at the SCG due to the rain.
Australia are hardly the first team to struggle to contain the superstar India vice-captain, but Powerplay wickets were an issue for Australia – they took just two across 17.1 overs and went at 9.20 runs per over in what was statistically their worst-ever Powerplay return across a three-game T20I series.
Outside the Powerplay, Australia fared better. The bowlers fought back brilliantly in the second match after India got off to a flier, bowling their rivals out to defend what had seemed a below-par 5-163. In the third match, India scored a ground-record 6-176 but were pegged back late.
“We were probably happy with 170 in the conditions,” Molineux said following the third T20I. “We just lost key wickets at really big times (chasing), which can happen in T20 cricket. But all in all, there were plenty of positives.”
Veteran pace bowler Megan Schutt, who has been Australia’s key new-ball weapon in T20Is across the past decade, was left on the sidelines throughout the series, with Darcie Brown and Kim Garth playing all three games. It was Brown’s first full T20I series since 2023, and Garth’s first since debuting for Australia in 2022.
Nicola Carey earned a recall for the first time since 2022 but bowled just two overs – both in the Powerplay – across her two matches.
Asked whether Schutt’s omission was aimed at trying Garth and Brown in different scenarios, or purely down to form, Australia captain Sophie Molineux suggested it was a mixture of both.
“Kim had a really good Big Bash, and Darce is bowling with really good pace and we just thought in T20 cricket against (India), (we’d) just show them something different,” she continued.
“They both bowled really well in different parts, and Kim had a different role at the death as well, and she executed really well and has become another option for us.
“We wanted to win every single game and win comfortably, but you’ve got to keep evolving, got to keep trying to stay ahead of the curve and part of that is giving people opportunity.
“We were just having a look at it all and there’s plenty of positives to take away from that side of things.”
Batting order
Despite two disappointing batting displays this series, the pieces are there for Australia’s T20I batting line-up. It’s more a question of how to put them together – and who misses out.
Georgia Voll’s match-winning knock in the second T20I will have sewn up the spot left at the top of the order following Alyssa Healy’s retirement. That’s if there was any doubt, given she had filled in for Healy with success in a six-match span in 2025.
Phoebe Litchfield has been backed in at first drop since Australia’s semi-final loss at the 2024 T20 World Cup and while she has yet to fully thrive in the role, averaging 19.11 in nine innings with a strike rate of 127, the other main contender for the spot, Ellyse Perry, has not fared any better at No.4 across the same period, averaging 18.83 with an SR of 128.
Ashleigh Gardner’s half-century in the third T20I was a welcome sign for the No.5 – it was her first fifty in the format at international level since December 2022. While Gardner has evolved into one of the world’s best one-day batters across the past two years, a period in which she has averaged 47 in the format, she has not yet translated that dominance to T20Is, where she’s averaged 18.08 with a strike rate of 108.5 since the start of 2024.
Speaking after the opening T20I in Sydney, Australia coach Shelley Nitschke said Georgia Wareham had been rewarded for her outstanding WBBL form with a promotion to No.6 this series, after she averaged 33.6 with an SR of 133.68 batting in the middle-order across the last two Big Bash campaigns for Melbourne Renegades. The allrounder top-scored with a 19-ball 30 in the opening T20I, did not face a delivery in the second, then struggling to get going in the third when she was dismissed for 12.
Wareham batting above Annabel Sutherland has raised eyebrows. But, while the Victorian has dominated with the bat in Tests and ODIs, the frontier Sutherland has yet to fully crack is her batting in the shortest format. For Australia, she averages 11.55 at a strike rate of 136.84, albeit with scant opportunity, having batted just 23 times in 48 matches with the majority of those coming at No.7 or lower.
For Melbourne Stars, Sutherland has averaged 17.72 with an SR of 113.92 batting in the top order across the past two seasons, which perhaps explains why she batted lower than many expected against India.
The bigger question is where Grace Harris fits into the order, and how she is used.
An opener for Brisbane Heat, Harris is seen as a batter who can add power to the middle-order for Australia and play a role as a finisher. She was listed at No.8 in Adelaide, her one game in the series. With a T20I career strike-rate of 154.95 there were questions asked when she was not promoted up the order when the required run rate was rapidly rising and the game slipping away from Australia.
Molineux said following the match that while Harris was an option: “Ash was still in at that point in time, and she was starting to strike a ball really cleanly as well (so) Bels’ role when she got out there – and she played it well – was to keep rotating the strike.”
Whether Harris is part of the XI on a regular basis is another question, and that’s a matter of…
Team balance
Do they play Harris, or use the spot for another allrounder? Harris was brought into the XI to add middle-order firepower following a late-innings fadeout in the second T20I, replacing Carey.
During Australia’s six-game winning run in early 2025, allrounder Tahlia McGrath played that finishing role with aplomb, scoring 89 runs in four innings, including three not outs, with a SR of 174.5. However her torrid run through the remainder of the year saw the vice-captain dropped for this series.
When Australia do go with Harris, they still have no shortage of bowling options – they used six in Adelaide, while Perry was another option, as technically is Harris, however she has bowled in just three T20Is across the past decade.
It’s also worth noting that Molineux’s appointment as captain has not necessarily forced a change in team balance or selection strategy by the Australians.
While often injured or ‘managed’ across the past 24 months, left-arm spinner Molineux was selected ahead of leg-spinners Alana King (in T20s) or Georgia Wareham (ODIs) every time she was available.
So it can be extrapolated that selectors have long viewed Molineux as integral to their strongest XI and prefer her left-arm spin option over a second leg-spinner.
What’s next?
Australia will fly to the Caribbean next month for three T20Is against the West Indies. They are undoubtedly weaker opposition than India but do boast one of the most formidable allrounders in the world in opening batter and off-spinner Hayley Matthews.
When Australia head to the UK in May, they’ll play South Africa in three warm-ups followed by two official World Cup practice matches – which gives Molineux and coach Shelley Nitschke a last opportunity to work out the kinks.
NRMA Insurance Australia v India Multi-Format Series
India lead the multi-format series 4-2
February 15: India won by 21 runs (DLS)
February 19: Australia won by 19 runs
February 21: India won by 17 runs
Australia ODI squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Sophie Molineux (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India ODI squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Renuka Thakur, Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Kashvee Gautam, Amanjot Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Uma Chetry, Harleen Deol, Pratika Rawal
February 24: First ODI, Allan Border Field, Brisbane, 2:50pm AEDT
February 27: Second ODI, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 2:50pm AEDT
March 1: Third ODI, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 2:50pm AEDT
Australia Test squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Sophie Molineux (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh, Sneh Rana, Amanjot Kaur, Uma Chetry, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Kranti Gaud, Vaishnavi Sharma, Sayali Satghare
March 6-9: Test match, WACA Ground, 4:20pm AEDT (D/N)
