Being ruthless when on top has driven this Australia Women’s team to remain dominant against India, a trait that the visitors will look to sustain in the three-match T20I series, said leg-spinner Georgia Wareham here on Thursday.
Having never lost a bilateral ODI series to India, Australia enjoy a 23-6 record in 31 T20Is against their opponents with one tied game and the remaining one producing no result.
The Aussies bounced back from a crushing defeat in the one-off Test to win the three-match ODI series 3-0.
“We speak about that a lot in our meetings (about) being ruthless - when we’re on top - we like to keep doing that and not let it slip,” Wareham told the reporters on the eve of the first T20I at the DY Patil Stadium.
“If we get the opportunity to be in that position again, we’re gonna keep on trying to be as ruthless as possible,” she added.
Wareham also hoped Australia would be able to carry momentum from the ODI series into the shortest format.
“India, being such great competition, (it is a) really good practice, but at the same time, we still want to win over these games. Coming off the three wins in the ODIs, we will take a little bit of momentum from that,” she said.
Wareham, like her teammates including captain Alyssa Healy, mentioned about India being a challenge and she stressed that the way Harmanpreet Kaur’s team plays is exciting.
“T20 cricket is, it is ruthlessly - it’s that word again - but it comes down to the day. Anyone can win any game. It just takes a couple of players to have a really good day out there,” she said.
“Luckily, we’ve been on the right side of that last few games. Every time we’ve come up against India in a World Cup, we’ve been put under a lot of pressure.”
The way they play their game is really exciting. It is a really tough matchup for us given the power that they have, at the top of the order for the bowlers, and the variety that they have,” she said.
Wareham added: “It’s really a good challenge to sort of see where we’re at, I think coming up in to the (T20) World Cup in Bangladesh.”
The Victorian bowler said India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana has been a ‘tough’ match-up for their bowlers.
“For leg spinners, myself and Kingy (Alana King) it’s the left-handers that have probably given us the most grief, but someone like Smriti Mandhana, is a really tough match-up against us,” said Wareham.
Wareham, who played for Gujarat Giants in the inaugural Women’s Premier League, joined the Mandhana-led Royal Challengers Bangalore for the second edition during the auction last month.
