Healy admits Aus' 'fighting spirit' not in its usual spades in Women's Ashes

TAUNTON: After retaining the women’s Ashes, Australia skipper Alyssa Healy admitted that their usual “fighting spirit” was noticeably absent across the month-long series but preferred to look at the opportunities it presented her side.

A thrilling women’s Ashes series came to a close here on Tuesday with England defeating Australia by 69 runs (DLS method) in the third ODI.

The victory allowed England to clinch the ODI component of the series 2-1, but Australia still retained the Ashes as the multi-format series ended tied at 8-8 following the seven matches.

Notably, England handed Australia their first ODI series defeat in a decade, their largest defeat by runs (69) since 2008, and overall won more matches across the seven-game series, taking out four to Australia’s three.

“I think our fighting spirit was there in parts. I think we showed it (in Sunday’s ODI)… it was really there when we really, really needed it. It’s still there,” Healy was quoted by Cricket.com.au

“But I think you look at some of the changes that this group has seen over the last 12 months in particular, I mean, we’ve lost two of our most senior players, top-order bats in particular in the space of 12 months (Rachel Haynes and Meg Lanning) and we’re not sure if and when one of those might be coming back,” she added.

Healy also highlighted the transformations within the Australian set-up, which included the retirement of former vice-captain Haynes last year and the absence of their regular captain Lanning.

“I wouldn’t say (this is) an end of an era I think it’s maybe a little bit of a moment that we potentially needed. We looked back on the T20 series and we felt like that might have been coming for a little while.

“We hate the term ‘found a way’ (but we did) to win some moments in key series and tournaments over the last few years, and I think we were going to need to look at how to adapt and continue to grow as a T20 side,” said Healy.

She further admitted that the 50-over losses were particularly painful, considering Australia’s arrival in the United Kingdom with an impressive 15-game winning streak in the format and an outstanding record of winning 41 of their last 42 ODIs.

“But the one-day format probably hurt us a little bit, because I think we’re still a really strong side and a really strong outfit and to play the way we did was disappointing,” she added.

This was the first time an Ashes series finished level since 2017, and England’s 2-1 wins in both white-ball legs were their first series wins against Australia across that same period.