Injured Haynes ruled out of India series

Opener Rachael Haynes' has been ruled out of Australia's series against India and will miss the upcoming Test match on the Gold Coast.

Haynes suffered a right hamstring injury during Sunday's third ODI, and was forced to leave the field during Australia's bowling innings.

"Unfortunately her hamstring is no good," Mott said at Metricon Stadium today ahead of the Test beginning Thursday.

"She's devastated – obviously Test matches don't come around too often, she's a key member of our squad so our thoughts are with her at the moment."

In-form batter Beth Mooney is likely to be elevated to open alongside Alyssa Healy, just as she does in the T20Is, and as was the case in last Friday night's second ODI in Mackay when Haynes was out with an elbow injury.

Healy has been named vice-captain in Haynes' absence.

In that second ODI Mooney made a match-winning 125no, while she also opened in the 2017 Ashes Test in Sydney, making 27. In the 2019 Ashes Test in the UK, she made 51 and 25 batting at six and five respectively.

Haynes' absence opens up a spot in the batting order and will likely see the Australians go one of two ways with their team balance.

Either back-up batter Georgia Redmayne, who enjoyed a breakthrough season with the Queensland Fire in the WNCL last summer, will debut as part of the top six, or selectors could opt to add another allrounder into the mix.

The likes of right-arm trio Nicola Carey, Annabel Sutherland and Tahlia McGrath all well placed to push for a spot in the starting XI.

Mott also said he was hopeful leg-spinner Georgia Wareham, who has returned to training after suffering a quad injury in the second ODI, would be declared fit to make her debut after she was narrowly overlooked in Australia's most recent Test, against England in 2019.

"Georgia's ticking all the boxes for her return to play," he said. "She was very sensible around that – she felt something quite early, got treatment and has been doing everything she can to get it right.

"Personally, I really hope she gets through it after missing out in the last Test we played. She's a key member; no matter what the wicket serves up, she's a wicket-taker and she's an incredibly good thing for this team – she leads the way in the field and her batting is evolving all the time.

"So hopefully she gets the opportunity – she's done everything in her powers to be ready."

Haynes is set to stay with the Australia squad for the first day of the Test. The 34-year-old and partner Leah Poulton are expecting the arrival of their first child next month.

CommBank Series v India

Australia lead India 4-2 on points

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), 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.

First ODI:Australia won by nine wickets

Sep 24: Australia won by five wickets

Sep 26: India won by two wickets

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