Australia women’s team captain Alyssa Healy was over the moon as after losing the one-off Test to India on their recent tour, the visitors ended on a happy note, winning the ODIs series 3-0 and the T20Is 2-1.
After the match, Healy was asked about her equation with her India counterpart Harmanpreet Kaur. During the Test, Harmanpreet had thrown the ball at Alyssa in frustration while she was batting, and the Australian skipper simply smiled back.
She took a defensive pose and the ball hit her bat to race to the boundary, while Harman's appeal for obstructing the field was rejected.
"I would probably just summarise it as competitive cricket is going out there, doing our job for the side. We both approach it (captaincy roles) very differently, and that's over to her to deal with that. But, from my point of view, there's no animosity there," said Alyssa during the post-match interaction.
"I'm all for, you know, if I need to be given a send-off, then so be it. I'm all for it because, at the end of the day, I'm chirpy behind the stump. So if you're willing to dish it out, you've got to be able to cop it," she added.
Alyssa backed Harmanpreet and the India team to come out stronger from this series.
"She has probably had really two hard series on the trot and this series has been a long one. I'm sure that the Indian team will bounce back and obviously reflect on what these last couple of series have meant for their side," Alyssa said.
Healy further felt that this India tour gave a huge information for prepping for the next two global white-ball events -- the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh later this year and the 50-over World Cup in India in 2025.
"We've gained some valuable information at the same time. Probably some areas where we can improve and some areas that probably that we're nailing at the moment. It's pretty cut-throat when you come into a World Cup. You've got to win games and you've got to get yourselves over the line. We're going to have a squad to do it. “It's just probably nailing down our plans and probably our shot selection, more importantly, over here," she said.
(PTI inputs)
