Top end trip marks first step of Australia's World Cup journey

Australia’s journey towards their one-day World Cup title defence quietly got underway in the remote outback of the Northern Territory, where Alyssa Healy’s team started plotting their path to the showpiece tournament in India.

For the second consecutive year, Australia’s contracted female players and staff have taken advantage of a winter without any overseas touring engagements to assemble outside the confines of the training nets.

This year’s trip, which saw them spend time in Darwin and Kakadu National Park, was an opportunity not only to bond – while getting up close and personal with saltwater crocodiles in the Yellow Water (Ngurrungurrudjba) wetlands – but to home in on their shared and individual goals ahead of the tournament in India.

"It was a really fun camp to be involved in, changing it up and (getting outside) our normal National Cricket Centre environment," Australia vice-captain told Tahlia McGrath cricket.com.au.

"It was the first time we'd come together as a group for probably two months, so it was just really nice to see everyone again ... and then we got to do some awesome things.

"The first two days was just a bit of (fitness) testing, meetings, and then we had a really cool opportunity to go to Kakadu, do some school clinics, have cultural experiences, and just commit to learning more about Indigenous culture, and we certainly got a lot out of that.

"We're really committed as a team to constantly push ourselves to improve, and that's largely due to Shelley Nitschke and Midge (Alyssa Healy), but also as a whole collective group buy in, and it was a really cool way to do that away from the cricket field, (to focus on) connection and learning more about each other."

The preseason trip fittingly coincided with National Reconciliation Week.

During their two-day stay in Kakadu National Park, the Australian group took the opportunity to learn about the history and traditional owners of the land as part of their ongoing commitment to embracing Indigenous culture.

"(These experiences) are really important," McGrath continued. "We're really lucky in what we do, we get to travel the world and see some cool places, but we don't often get to see explore our own backyard too much.

"To be able to do that and also give back to the community and then bond as a team as well, doing things like spear throwing together, going on a river cruise (and) looking at all the animals ... just some really cool experiences.

"I learned a lot and it's just something completely different to what I'd done before, and we were all ears just soaking in all the information, asking lots of questions, and it was just really beneficial to the group."

Australia’s only series ahead of the World Cup will be three one-day internationals in India in September, to be played at New Chandigarh’s New PCA stadium (September 14 and 17) while the third ODI will be held at the Arun Jaitley stadium in New Delhi (September 20) after the games were moved from Chennai.

However, many of the nation’s top players will head to the United Kingdom next month to feature in The Hundred – Grace Harris and Alana King are already in England for the T20 Blast – while several of those remaining in Australia are expected to feature in an ‘A’ series against India A in August.

"Something we spoke about was that (the camp) was probably the last time our whole group will be together until we fly to India," McGrath said.

"Everyone goes their separate ways, so it's how can we continue to stay connected as a group and how can we continue to go away and evolve our own individual games and keep getting better, and then stay connected as a group as well.

"We were also talking about what we might experience in this World Cup coming up, we're playing at some venues we're not familiar with, some opposition we don't play too often."

Australia will be aiming to add an unprecedented eighth 50-over World Cup title when they arrive in India in September, having previously won the trophy in 1978, 1982, 1988, 1997, 2005, 2013 and most recently in New Zealand in 2022.

The Aussies have undergone a significant period of change since they lifted the trophy at Hagley Park in April 2022; leaders Meg Lanning and Rachael Haynes have both since retired while coach Matthew Mott departed shortly after the tournament.

Ranked No.1 in the world, Australia will go in as favourites having won the 2022-24 ICC Women’s Championship, the round-robin bilateral competition that determines World Cup qualification.

But there will be no danger of complacency, particularly following last year’s shock T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to South Africa.

"The next couple months are really important from an individual point of view, to get really fit, really strong and work on our individual games, but also stay connected as a team because World Cups are special, especially 50-over World Cups, they don't come around too often," McGrath said.

"You want to win them, so making sure we do everything possible over the next couple of months to give ourselves the best opportunity to be playing a really good brand of cricket come that World Cup."

For McGrath, who is not signed to a team for this year’s Hundred, the chance to spend time at home this Australian winter has been invaluable, particularly as she casts an eye to the packed international calendar that looms across the next three years.

McGrath’s role within the Australian XI evolved over the summer, seeing her shift lower down the batting order during the multi-format Ashes and T20I tour of New Zealand – giving the allrounder a clear focus going into this preseason.

"I'm loving the opportunity to spend a bit of time at home and to work on my individual game for a little bit before a busy season ahead," she said.

"From a batting point of view, I've gone down the order a little bit in the Australian team so the role is just about being able to score from ball one, I'm really focused on that.

"With the ball, I’m hoping to bowl as many overs in games as possible, so I'm trying to add a few variations into my game, and maybe hone in on a little bit more death bowling as well."