T20 World Cup: Meg Lanning says Alyssa Healy finding form in nets

Australia captain Meg Lanning has warned bowlers to be wary of an out-of-form Alyssa Healy.

The 10 team captains at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo for the launch of the Women’s T20 World Cup. Picture: AAP

Captain Meg Lanning has warned bowlers to be wary of an out-of-form Alyssa Healy, because the Australian star is finding her range and is going to make somebody pay.

The Australian wicketkeeper made just 15 runs at an average of 3 in the recent T20 Tri Series against England and India. It has not been the best of warm-ups for the World Cup, which begins for Australia on Friday with the opening match of the tournament against India at the Sydney Showground, but her skipper is backing Healy to bounce back.

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“There’s no doubt she would have loved to have scored more runs in the Tri Series, but I think she has shown, especially over the last two years, how good she is and how dangerous she is, she is a couple of shots away from getting back into form and I’d be pretty nervous as a bowler coming up against her in the next few weeks because she seems to have got her swing back a little bit in training,” Lanning said.

“It’s great that she can get back into form but we need to have a number of people contributing, one person is not going to win you the number of games you need to.”

WOMEN’S ICC T20 WORLD CUP

The 10 team captains gathered on a balcony under stormy Sydney skies at Taronga Zoo on Monday to launch the tournament, which will conclude with a final on International Women’s Day, March 8, at the MCG.

Much attention in the room focused on Thai captain, Sornnarin Tippoch.

Women’s cricket only started up in Thailand in 2007. Tippoch was asked to try out when somebody noticed her soft ball skills and 12 years later she skippered the side to a victory over New Guinea in Scotland that ensured their first-ever appearance at a World Cup.

Many of the other faces in the room were more familiar due to the fact that the Women’s Big Bash League has attracted the best female talent across the sport in recent years.

New Zealand’s captain, Sophie Devine, is a household name thanks to her time with Adelaide Strikers. An entertaining woman who describes herself as one of the game’s “old farts”, Devine acknowledges the fact that eight members of her squad playing in the WBBL is an advantage.

“We leave microphones lying about in all the change rooms,” she joked. “We’re smart, Kiwis.

“No, it’s been a fantastic opportunity. Australia welcomes us Kiwis with open arms. To have the exposure to the best domestic competition in the world and being able to play at a lot of the venues that are going to be played at in the World Cup is going to hold us in good stead. For players who’ve had success it brings a level of confidence to your game. Being familiar with some of the grounds and the opposition as well, we’re going to be taking a lot of the experience and learnings we took from the WBBL over the last couple of years into the World Cup.”

South Africa captain Dane van Niekerk plays for the Sixers in the WBBL, alongside her wife and fellow squad member Marizanne Kapp.

“Never in my lifetime did I think I’d be able to play in the Big Bash and amongst some of the best in the world, it changed a lot of my teammates’ games, they’ve risen in the rankings and it is all thanks to the Big Bash,” van Niekerk said.

“The Big Bash is the best T20 competition in the world for women at the moment.”

England captain Heather Knight believes the experience of being so soundly beaten by Australia in the Ashes during the winter has given her team a wake-up call.

“I think we learnt a hell of a lot last summer, we didn’t play anywhere near our best and Australia completely outplayed us,” she said. “It gave us a chance to sit down and work out what we are about as a side and how we want to take things forward and reassess exactly what we want to do as a team, I think we learned loads from it, we’ve had a good six months since then.’’

Australia won a closely fought Tri Series on the weekend but not before dropping games to both England and India.

“There’s no doubt the quality of cricket over the last few years has increased all the time, we certainly weren’t surprised at how close the Tri Series was,” Lanning said. “India and England are two world-class teams who we’ve played a lot and we understand that they are very good, in World Cups every team starts on zero points and on any day anything can happen. We need to play well on any day.’’