Gloves back on: Faltum returns 'ready' for leadership

After a frustrating off-season spent dealing with a stubborn thumb injury, a fully fit Nicole Faltum is back behind the stumps and calling the shots.

Faltum is currently touring India with the Australia A squad, where she skippered the side to a sweep of the T20 leg before handing over captaincy duties to Tahlia Wilson for the 50-over matches.

While her opportunities with the bat were limited in a series dominated by the Australian top order – she was unbeaten across the 11 balls she faced – the 'A' tour has been a welcome return to play for Faltum, whose 2025-26 season was prematurely ended by her injured thumb.

The wicketkeeper-batter had made the call to undergo surgery on the digit as quickly as possible, with the aim of recovering in time for the start of the 2026-27 pre-season.

But frustratingly for the Victorian, the first procedure failed, forcing her to go under the knife a second time.

"In March, I had a soft tissue reconstruction of my thumb, where they repaired a couple of the ligaments and put an artificial one in there, but then unfortunately that one failed," Faltum told cricket.com.au.

"So then in June I ended up getting a thumb fusion ... they just put two big screws in and then fused the bones and the joints together, just so it makes the joint stable.

"The second time round was a success, so it's been all good from there ... (after that) it was just the time it took for the bone to heal, and a little bit of hand movement-type (rehab) stuff."

Faltum's injury came at a particularly unfortunate time for the 26-year-old, coinciding with the retirement of former Australia captain and 'keeper Alyssa Healy.

With Beth Mooney taking over the gloves full time, Australia needed a back-up 'keeper for their Caribbean tour in April, and a travelling reserve for the T20 World Cup in England in June – opportunities that have been as rare as hen's teeth across the past decade, given the dominance of Healy and Mooney in the green and gold.

Faltum had been part of two previous Australian tours, to New Zealand in early 2025 and an ODI series in India later the same year, and she was seen as having a slight edge as Australia's next 'keeper in a close race between the Victorian and NSW's Wilson.

Ultimately it was Wilson who travelled to the Caribbean and England, and in St Kitts, she became the first wicketkeeper to debut for Australia's women in ODIs since Mooney a decade ago, when the incumbent was a late withdrawal due to a tight quad.

Faltum is not dwelling on what-ifs, however, with her focus on making the most of the 'A' tour experience before returning home for the T20 Spring Challenge and Weber WBBL|12.

"There's obviously never an ideal time for injuries, but it did feel a little bit like (poor timing), and especially making the call with that first (surgery) to finish my season a little bit sooner to get it right for what would have been the very start of preseason … and then when that failed, it was a little bit annoying and frustrating," Faltum said.

 "But all in all, it's worked out still being able to be available to come here and playing this A series. I mean, hindsight's a beautiful thing, I would have loved for it to be right a while ago, but it's all good now and that's all that really matters."

Faltum and Wilson are splitting 'keeping duties 50/50 on the current 'A' tour, swapping the gloves across the six white-ball matches and even dividing the four-day game into one innings apiece.

They are also reaping the benefits of having Australia's fielding coach Gavan Twining with them in India as Australia A head coach.

"A wicketkeeping resource is often hard to hard to get, so when he's your head coach of a of a tour like this, it's awesome," Faltum said.

"We definitely get priority as wicketkeepers, which isn't often the case ... and then it's also nice to have camaraderie with him, with him being named the Renegades coach as well this season."

The off-season was a notable one for Faltum for reasons beyond surgery and rehab.

In July, she was unveiled as Victoria's new full-time captain, replacing Sophie Molineux, whose availability for her state has become increasingly limited since her appointment as national skipper.

It was a notable appointment, not only because Faltum was tasked with helping to turn around the fortunes of a team who went winless in 2025-26, but because it was not her first opportunity to lead the state.

Faltum had previously stepped in to captain Victoria in place of Molineux when the spinner was injured or unavailable due to international duties, but she was left out of the leadership group in 2025-26 when Rhys McKenna and Ella Hayward – who has since moved to Tasmania – were instead promoted to co-vice-captains.

Looking back on her experiences as a leader in her early 20s, Faltum doesn't feel as though she had been ready.

"I found I was in (leadership) positions probably well before I should have been, in a way," she said. "I'm probably just more ready now. I feel really clear on how I want to go about things and the people I want around. And personally, I'm pretty clear on my morals and my values and what I stand for, so being able to be really clear on that has also helped.

"It feels really good to have it back, it's a position that I love being in."

Since stepping into the full-time captaincy at the start of preseason, Faltum has set about building on the work done by McKenna last season, and helping the team draw a line in the sand as they move on from their winless season.

"I've absolutely loved it, it's been really, really cool," she continued. "Sophie Molineux has done such an amazing job in previous years, and put so much time and effort into the group when she probably hasn't been all that present.

"Rhys McKenna did a power of work in her leadership last year and did some really cool things on that front, so (I'm) still trying to hold on to the really good things that we did.

"We have such a cool group, and we've had a really big emphasis on trying to bring everybody together, get super connected, but then also really focusing on our performance and bottom line, we really, really want to win and be competitive this season."

One of Faltum's first moves as captain was to create a canvas featuring each squad member's initials alongside the Ruth Preddey Cup, in a move aimed at manifesting a change in fortunes.

Faltum's more mature approach has been well received by Victorian leadership, with coach Andy Christie praising the way she handled her demotion from the leadership group, and her development since.

"She's been excellent. We certainly challenged her throughout last season, and then to see her come back this year and really put her stamp on the group, and the changeroom, and how we want to go about playing our cricket, and what the environment we want people walking into, where we want that to be (is excellent)," Christie said.

"Nic is a ball of energy, really enthusiastic and really great at connecting with people."

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