New ball, who dis? Perry to reprise lead bowling role

Ellyse Perry looks set to reprise her new-ball role for Australia's first ODI against India next Tuesday in Mackay.

Perry, who is just one of seven bowlers to have taken 150 wickets in women's ODIs, was a bit-part figure with the ball in the one-day series against New Zealand in March-April, bowling just six overs in the first two matches from first change, before not bowling at all in the third.

Prior to that, Perry did not appear in a single ODI through 2020, the first time since 2006 she hasn't turned out for Australia in the format.

The superstar allrounder's absence was down to an extensive recovery from a serious hamstring injury, and led to speculation that her best bowling years might be behind her.

But with a reworked run-up and another lengthy pre-season behind her, the 30-year-old again looks well placed to feature up front in the absence of fellow pace pair Megan Schutt (leave) and Tayla Vlaeminck (workload management) as Australia look to rotate their pace-bowling battery across the multi-format series.

"With Megan Schutt missing for this series there might be more opportunity there with the new ball, especially initially," she said today as part of the announcement of Cricket Australia's renewed partnership with Commonwealth Bank.

"That still very much depends on performance but I think there'll be a fair bit of change in between the attack, just managing people's workloads given that a number of us went through 14 days' quarantine before this.

"Last summer I was grateful just to be back on the park … a lot was made of the limited impact I had with the ball, and it's been a really great challenge to continue to evolve and try and improve that.

"Right the way across my career I've always really enjoyed the challenge of trying to get better and evolve my game because I think the game's evolved so much.

"To have such a long period of time over the off-season to (train) in Victoria has been really good … obviously I've still got to perform and translate that back onto the park but I'm looking forward to the summer ahead."

Perry had Australia captain Meg Lanning caught behind during yesterday's 30-overs-per-side hit-out, and coach Matthew Mott was pleased with her bowling after being initially expensive, adding that he expected her to step up as a senior bowler in an otherwise inexperienced group during the India series.

"It's exciting to see where she's going to take her game," Mott said. "Something we've spoken about is without Schutt and (spinner Jess) Jonassen, she's going to play a really pivotal role in leading our attack with some young bowlers around her."

It has been almost two years since Perry took the new ball in ODIs for Australia, but she did so in all 12 matches she played through 2019, producing statistically her best year with 21 wickets at 13.52 while striking every 21.4 balls and taking a career-best 7-22 in the Ashes.

That period also coincided with the rise of Vlaeminck, while the likes of Stella Campbell, Annabel Sutherland and Darcie Brown have all been lauded as the faces of a new wave of Australian fast bowling.

All three quicks are still teenagers and Perry believes they are set to advance the game, meaning her role will shift depending on their involvement and influence.

"Physically I don't feel any different almost 18 months down the track from that (hamstring injury), and I think the numbers are one thing and then the other side of it is playing a role for the team and contributing to how we want to play," she explained.

"As the personnel in our team evolves or we change that, your role as an individual slightly changes too, and it's about balancing that within a group.

"There's some genuine excitement to how (those young quicks are) evolving the game and they'll continue to take it forward."

CommBank Series v India

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Darcie Brown, Maitlan Brown, Stella Campbell, Nicola Carey, Hannah Darlington, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Redmayne, Molly Strano, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham

India Test and ODI squad: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Shikha Pandey, Jhulan Goswami, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh, Ekta Bisht.

India T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh (wk), Harleen Deol, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh.

Sep 21: First ODI, Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay

Sep 24: Second ODI, Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay (D/N)

Sep 26: Third ODI, Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay

Sep 30 – Oct 3: Test match, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast (D/N)

Oct 7: First T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Oct 9: Second T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast

Oct 10: Third T20, Metricon Stadium, Gold Coast