Darcie Brown, Megan Schutt tipped to face India in first ODI

Beth Mooney says Australia will turn to its quicks in India in a bid to finetune its death bowling before back-to-back World Cups.

Closing out an innings with both bat and ball will be Australia’s focus in its Indian white-ball games as selectors mull playing up to three specialist quicks in the first ODI.

Megan Schutt and Darcie Brown are both in the frame to return for the tourists after they were left out of last week’s Test defeat in Mumbai.

Australia’s seamers struggled on the Wankhede Stadium pitch as off-spinner Ash Gardner was forced to bowl more than a third of the overs, but more pace-friendly conditions are expected for first one-day game at the same venue on Thursday night.

Beth Mooney said Schutt and Brown could both play, with former Irish national Kim Garth likely to retain her place in the side after a superb white-ball campaign against the West Indies on home soil to begin the summer.

Megan Schutt is firmly in selection calculations ahead of Thursday night’s opening ODI against India in Mumbai. Picture: Gareth Copley / Getty Images

It means two of Georgia Wareham, Alana King and Jess Jonassen could miss selection, after the latter pair played in the Test match for combined figures of 1-127.

“I’m looking forward to seeing Darce out there hopefully, and obviously Schutter is a bundle of energy, no matter what tour we’re on or what time of the year it is, she always brings a great vibe to the group,” Mooney said.

“It would be really exciting to see those girls out there hopefully

“But as we know with this Australian team, and we saw in the Test match, there’s heavy competition for spots at the moment.”

Mooney, who confirmed she would bat in the middle order with captain Alyssa Healy and Phoebe Litchfield would open the batting in the 50-over format, said Australia was looking to finetune its batting and bowling at the death ahead of the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September next year.

Phoebe Litchfield (left) and Australian captain Alyssa Healy will open the batting in the 50-over games in Mumbai, says Beth Mooney. Picture: Albert Perez / Getty Images

The tournament will come 12 months before another ODI World Cup in India, with Australia determined to learn from the conditions during this series to prepare its defence of both titles.

“We go to Bangladesh in April (for three ODIs and three T20s) as well, so we want to take as much as we can out of this series and really learn about the conditions as much as we can,” Mooney said.

“We’ve taken a little bit of insight from the Australian men’s team that was over here recently playing the ODI World Cup … getting some insights from them has been really helpful.

“I think the death bowling and death batting stuff is going to be really important, making sure we nail that.”

Australia will face India in three one-day games at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium before a short trip east to Navi for three T20s at the DY Patil Sports Stadium to complete the tour.

Originally published as Darcie Brown, Megan Schutt tipped to face India in first ODI