Wilson adds new strings to bow through globetrotting winter

From St Kitts to Durham to Chandigarh, the last six months have been a whirlwind for Tahlia Wilson.

Experience in subcontinent conditions is the latest tool wicketkeeper-batter Wilson has added to her kitbag, as she plays a crucial role in Australia A's multi-format tour of India.

Sharing wicketkeeping duties with Nicole Faltum, Wilson is skippering the one-day leg of the tour, which currently sits at 1-1 after Australia A's mammoth chase of 341 in Mohali on Thursday.

The opener helped set the tone for the successful chase, scoring a 77-ball 79 and sharing a 76-run second-wicket stand with Anika Learoyd.

"The last probably four Australia A tours I've been involved with when we've played India A, they've all been in Australia, so it's breaking some new ground that we get to go to India," Wilson told cricket.com.au earlier this month, ahead of the series.

"I think it'd been probably over a decade since the Australia A team has been to India."

Wilson has clocked up plenty of frequent flyer points since the end of the 2025-26 summer.

She earned her first international call-up for Australia's white-ball tour of the West Indies in April, following the retirement of former Australia captain and 'keeper Alyssa Healy.

With Beth Mooney taking over the gloves full time, Australia needed a back-up wicketkeeper – the sort of opportunity that had been vanishingly rare across the last decade, given the dominance of Healy and Mooney in the green and gold.

Touching down in St Kitts for the ODI leg of the tour, Wilson barely brushed off the jet lag before she was catapulted into the Australia XI when Mooney was ruled out with a quad niggle. In the process, she became the first wicketkeeper to debut for Australia's women in ODIs since Mooney a decade ago.

From there, Wilson travelled directly to the United Kingdom for a county cricket stint with Durham, before linking up with Australia's T20 World Cup squad as a travelling reserve.

It was a marked difference to her previous eight preseasons with New South Wales, which were primarily spent toiling away in the indoor nets and slowly building up to the season ahead.

"It's pretty crazy to think back that at the end of March I was making my way to the West Indies, and then I made my debut, to going to a World Cup after that with the Australian team," Wilson said.

"I really enjoyed that six weeks (with Durham), I couldn't thank them enough for the opportunity they gave me, and it was such a great group to be around.

"To get to experience county cricket and to be able to play more cricket was absolutely unbelievable, so hopefully I get to do that a bit more into the future.

"The World Cup was absolutely awesome to be a part of. My first World Cup, and for the girls to get the win, it was very enjoyable to watch."

The 26-year-old had a front-row view to Australia's dominant T20 World Cup campaign, which saw them steamroll their way into the final before cruising to victory against hosts England at Lord's to lift the trophy for a seventh time.

"I learned a lot … I just think it's how well they hold their standards," Wilson continued.

"They absolutely dominated every game they played in, but every preview, every review was by the book.

"They made sure they didn't miss out on anything, and they weren't getting complacent.

"I think that was the thing that really stood out, and it showed in the end as to why we were so dominant."

A brief stint at home training with NSW between the World Cup and the 'A' tour gave Wilson time to work on some small tweaks to her game.

Now, she hopes her busy offseason will provide the perfect launching pad to the domestic summer.

'A' duties will rule her out of the opening round of the Women's National Cricket League season next week, but Wilson will be back in the lime green for the Sydney Thunder in the T20 Spring Challenge ahead of Weber WBBL|12.

"Batting wise (I've) just been working on my stance a little bit to try and generate a little bit more power, and then from a keeping point of view, sort of similar, a few stance set-up changes," Wilson said.

"But all in all, I'm trying to keep it pretty similar – things have been working, so I don't want to change it too much."

Australia A tour of India 2026 – women

Australia A squad: Darcie Brown, Nicole Faltum, Tess Flintoff, Sianna Ginger, Milly Illingworth, Charli Knott, Anika Learoyd, Katie Mack, Lilly Mills, Frankie Nicklin, Hayley Silver-Holmes, Rachel Trenaman, Courtney Webb, Tahlia Wilson, Tayla Vlaeminck

First T20: Australia A won by six wickets

Second T20: Australia A won by 30 runs

Third T20: Australia A won by seven runs

First one-dayer: India A won by four wickets

Second one-dayer: Australia A won by two wickets

Third one-dayer: September 25, IS Bindra Stadium, 6:30pm AEST (D/N)

Four-dayer: September 29 – October 2, IS Bindra Stadium, 2pm AEST