Australia's women's cricket team captain and wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy has been ruled out of the upcoming three T20I series on New Zealand soil. Healy is yet to recover from foot injury which was aggravated during the Ashes at home.
"My understanding is that there's no doubt that she'll get through to the World Cup, that's for sure," Australia chief selector Shawn Flegler told reporters. "She's had a complicated last couple of years with some different injuries that's been related to foot...some Achilles and stuff.
"We certainly don't want to rush it. As far as I'm aware, there's no risk that she'll miss out on that World Cup."
Australia have named a 14-player squad for the T20I series led by Tahlia McGrath. In Healy's absence, McGrath led Australia to T20 World Cup title last year and retained the Ashes as well.
Who is Alyssa's replacement?
Victoria's wicketkeeper-batter Nicole Faltum has received her maiden international call-up. The 25-year-old Melbourne Renegades player has scored 429 runs from 51 innings in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL).
While her overall record is not impressive, she has been in good form of late. She scored 136 runs from eight innings at an average of 27.20 aind strike rate of 134.65 in the previous edition. She also scored her maiden WBBL fifty having made her debut in 2017.
"We just see Nic slightly ahead of the others, particularly for the T20 format," Flegler said. "It's really unlikely that she will play. Obviously, Beth will take the gloves for this tour and she did a really good job during the Ashes replacing Alyssa.
"But we just thought it was a great opportunity for Nicole to come in and be around the group, train with them and get to see the environment first hand."
The T20I series is scheduled to begin on March 21 at Eden Park, Auckland. The next two T20Is will be played at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui and Sky Stadium, Wellington on March 23 and 26 respectively.
Australia's T20I squad for New Zealand tour
Darcie Brown, Nicole Faltum, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath (c), Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
