World champs out to find another level against new-look Kiwis

Sophie Molineux has declared Australia are only just getting started with their barnstorming brand of T20I cricket, as the newly crowned world champions look to find another level against New Zealand.

Australia's three upcoming T20Is against the White Ferns in Sydney will be their first games in the format since lifting the T20 World Cup at Lord's in early July.

Their win over England in the final was the culmination of arguably their most dominant ever campaign at the ICC tournament, where they not only sailed through undefeated on their way to their seventh title, but also scored at a faster rate than any of their previous T20 World Cups – by a significant margin – while also boasting the most miserly bowling attack.

Already the next ICC event is hovering on the horizon, and the three matches at North Sydney Oval will be Australia's only matches in the format before next February's inaugural ICC T20 Champions Trophy in India.

It means Australia have no time to rest on their laurels, with Molineux already plotting how her team can push the boundaries further.

"I think we're getting somewhere with how we want to play our cricket," Molineux told reporters in Sydney on Friday. "It showed when we were at the World Cup and we played a really aggressive, free and exciting game of cricket over there.

"We found out that that works for us, and we just want to keep building on that. I think over the next week or so, playing these three T20s before playing in the Champions Trophy, we really want to double down on that and make sure we get back to that style of play.

"To be able to find that next level of freedom - we (still) don't know what our limit is in terms of that. We're really excited by seeing how we can play our cricket and how that can evolve.

"Looking from a T20 point of view, we've got some massive tournaments coming up with the Champions Trophy and the Olympics and another T20 World Cup in the next couple of years, so there's plenty of work to be done."

While Australia will go into the series full of confidence and with a full-strength squad – or close to, if Phoebe Litchfield can't overcome a hip niggle – it is a different story for New Zealand.

Since they were knocked out in the group stage of the T20 World Cup, the White Ferns have bid farewell to their two most-capped T20I players in Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates, alongside veteran quick Lea Tahuhu.

They also parted ways with head coach Ben Sawyer last month, with the Australian's contract not renewed, and have arrived in Sydney with an interim coach in Dean Brownlie.

Devine, Bates and Tahuhu had played 425 T20Is between them, leaving an enormous gulf in experience in the current White Ferns side. Batter Maddy Green and captain Amelia Kerr are their most-capped current players having played 128 and 104 T20Is respectively, and their 15-player squad has played just 607 matches in total, or an average of 40.

Comparatively, the 14-player Australian squad has played a combined 941 games in the shortest format, at an average of 67.

New Zealand are without regular wicketkeeper-batter Izzy Gaze, who has been ruled out of the series with a thumb injury, but have welcomed back off-spinner Eden Carson, who was a key member of their 2024 T20 World Cup winning side.

The White Ferns missed out on the semi-finals at this year's T20 World Cup despite being placed in the weaker of the two groups following surprise losses to Sri Lanka and the West Indies.

Speaking to reporters in Sydney on Friday, Kerr said the inexperience of some of her players could work to their advantage.

"Everyone knows that Australia have been extremely successful in the women's game for a long time now, and they have paved the way in women's cricket," Kerr said. "But in saying that, we all know cricket's a very fickle game and we've got a group that probably hasn't played Australia too much, which I think it's a good thing (because) you don't have that trauma of playing Australia.

"They're the same as us. They've got two legs, two arms, and they're playing the sport and we know that when we're at our best, we're capable of beating anyone in the world. I think that's exciting for this group."

New Zealand's tour has so far gotten off to an inauspicious start, with the White Ferns suffering a rain-affected 19-run DLS defeat to the Governor-General's XI in their only warm-up game on Thursday evening.

On Friday, Kerr was delayed in arriving at the captain's press conference at Cricket Central in Silverwater after a miscommunication saw a contingent of Kiwis instead turn up at North Sydney Oval.

Despite the confusion, an upbeat Kerr was enthusiastic about her team's potential.

"It was highlighted at the World Cup that our fielding wasn't up to standard, and if we fielded better at that World Cup, we probably would have been in the semi-finals," Kerr said.

"If we'd scored more runs as well, that always helps – I think only Izzy Sharp was the only player to score more than fifty, so that top-order taking responsibility to go big when you get in, and that's myself, I had a few starts and didn't kick on.

"Last night (against the Governor-General's XI) was great to get out there, and I thought the best thing was our fielding, the body language, the energy, and how we were in tricky conditions compared to how we were at the World Cup, it was real growth."

For New Zealand, these T20Is and the upcoming T20 Champions Trophy also hold importance beyond who takes homes the silverware, with a spot at the Olympics on the line.

Australia's place at LA 2028 is already secured, having claimed the Oceania spot by virtue of their higher T20I ranking at the cut-off date that coincided with the end of the T20 World Cup in July. India and South Africa, as well as a 'Great Britain' side, have locked in spots as the qualifiers from, respectively, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The fifth spot at the six-team event will be allocated to the next highest ranked team not yet qualified on March 1 next year – the date of the Champions Trophy final – regardless of continent. New Zealand currently occupy this spot as the ICC's fourth-ranked team in women's T20Is, 11 rating points ahead of Sri Lanka (249 to 238), and they will be desperate to maintain that buffer to avoid having to play off against seven other teams for the sixth and final spot at next year's global qualifying event. 

"It's pretty exciting to think of all the cricket coming up for us and the opportunities we have," Kerr said. "The Champions Trophy is going to be really important and we'd love to be at the Olympics as well."

NRMA Insurance Women's T20 Series v New Zealand

First T20I: Sunday, October 18

Second T20I: Tuesday, October 20

Third T20I: Thursday, October 22

* All matches played at North Sydney Oval starting at 7:15pm AEDT

Australia T20I squad: Sophie Molineux (c), Ashleigh Gardner (vc), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Nicola Carey, Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham 

New Zealand T20I squad: Melie Kerr (c), Eden Carson, Flora Devonshire, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Bree Illing, Polly Inglis (wk), Bella James, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Nensi Patel, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Izzy Sharp

All women's international matches will be shown live on Seven, 7Plus, Kayo Sports and Foxtel