India-Women's captain Harmanpreet Kaur celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Australia Womens captain Alyssa Healy on the third day of the one-off Test cricket match between India Women and Australia Women, at the Wankhede Stadium, in Mumbai, Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023.
PTI Photo
Mumbai: Australia's first-ever loss to India in the one-off women's Test is not even a "blip" and next year's T20 World Cup in Bangladesh remains their ultimate goal, said captain Alyssa Healy on Sunday.
Indian Women recorded a historic maiden victory over a venerable Australia in the one-off Test, putting a befitting end to their first 'home season' of Test cricket in 28 years.
The eight-wicket win was India's first-ever triumph over Australia in 11 Tests.
"Probably not even a blip,” Healy told media after the match when asked where does this defeat leave her side given their dominant record.
"It is a format where we are not overly familiar with conditions."
Healy said Australia’s squad has undergone a lot of change but they are comfortable with where they are currently placed.
"Within our group, we are really comfortable with where we are at and sort of the progression that we are on and where we we want to get to moving forward,” she said.
"Ultimately, there is a big T20 World Cup in Bangladesh towards the end of next year and that is a real carrot for us. These are the sort of big trophies that we are wanting to win.
"Yes, every series in between now and then is important, but at the same time, we are building towards that World Cup and we want to make sure that we are playing our best cricket to win those big those big moments."
The T20 World Cup is scheduled in Bangladesh next September and October, while the 2025 ODI World Cup will be played in India.
Healy wants to see more Tests
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Healy knows that women's cricket is currently dominated by white-ball cricket but said she would love to see more Test cricket in the calender.
"We would love to see more and more and it would create a real contest over three games," she said.
"But the nature of the female game, at the moment, is (that) it is (a) very white-ball dominant and trying to fit red-ball in the calendar and (to) fit all the white-ball games in particular seems to be taking precedence.
"You take three one-day games out and we could probably play two more Test matches," she added.
Before India took on England and Australia in one-off Test each, England’s Tammy Beaumont had hoped that the home team’s strong showing would add more matches to the future schedule.
Healy said the ball is in the court of the respective national boards.
"That is up to the BCCI and probably Cricket Australia as well to decide whether that is on the cards or not," she said.
"In the press conference (post match presentation) when Anjum (Chopra) asked me a question, then I thought, ‘Yep, imagine playing two more of these’. That would be an unbelievable experience for our group and probably a true test of of both sides' abilities."
"India's relentlessness with the ball stood out"
On the final day, India thwarted a spirited Australian resurgence, first sparking a collapse in the visitors’ ranks to snaffle the remaining five wickets for 28 and then knocking off a meagre target of 75 without much ado.
Healy credited India’s ‘relentlessness’ with the ball in their one-off Test.
"One-off Test match, India playing in their home conditions, you'd expect them to be heavy favourites. But the way we tried to adapt and and continue to learn throughout the four days was really impressive,” Healy said.
"Their relentlessness with the ball was probably what stood out to me. They are obviously heavy favourites in their own conditions."
"We wanted to take the result away from the discussion that we were not even looking at a result.
"We needed to bat out time, we needed to bat ourselves back into the game and that was going to take time whether it was 40-50 overs of today and put a total on the board that we might be able to dangle a little carrot and see if we could force a result that way."
India and Australia will next head into a three-match ODI series starting on December 28 here.