As Pakistan-born Sahir walked into the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday, he had no qualms admitting he switched allegiances to Australia a while back. “Best in the world”, Australia were always going to be “too strong” for a beleaguered Pakistan, their Group A opponents, on the night of their only T20 World Cup 2024 game in the city that attracted a crowd of 5000-plus. What should have been a routine stop-over – a little sound and mic check before a potential semifinal and hopefully their eighth straight final in tournament history – turned in an ominous four deliveries.
On her T20 World Cup comeback, Tayla Vlaeminck put in a desperate boundary-line dive, dislocating her right shoulder that had since been put “back in place”. The pacer had entered the XI in place of Grace Harris after Australia’s two previous games on low and gripping Sharjah tracks. Later in the second innings, skipper Alyssa Healy walked off in pain from what seemed like a calf injury at the time but was later confirmed to be an acute right foot injury. The duo will be monitored closely over the coming days.
“It’s horrible seeing my teammates go down and knowing Tay’s road to get back here – she’s someone that probably works harder than anyone else I know, so to see someone like that go down with another injury, we all felt for her, and there were people that were emotional,” Player of the Match Ashleigh Gardner said after Australia swatted aside Pakistan by nine wickets in Dubai. “That shows our care for our teammates and especially Tay, obviously [since] she’s worked so hard to get back here and earned it.”
Vlaeminck’s unfortunate run-in with serious injuries dates back to T-1 of the 2020 T20 World Cup, staged in Australia, where a stress fracture in the foot ruled her out of the competition when she was just nine T20Is-old. Since then, the Victorian quick has played only 11 more over the last four years, her return to top-flight cricket perennially delayed by a fresh blow. In 2022, the recurrence of the stress fracture in the foot led her to miss out on the ODI World Cup in New Zealand before a similar call had to be taken for the inaugural Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later that year and then the T20 World Cup in South Africa in early 2023. Australia is the reigning champion in all three.
As Vlaeminck prepared to make her international comeback, she dislocated the bowling-arm shoulder on the Australian A team’s shadow tour on the sidelines of the 2023 Ashes in England, subsequently ruling her out of the ninth edition of the Women’s Big Bash League back home due to corrective surgery. Vlaeminck returned to competitive cricket during the WNCL in January and made her T20I comeback on the April tour of Bangladesh. Before her Australia debut, Vlaeminck had undergone two ACL reconstructions as a teenager.
Set to roll at a World Cup once more four and a half years later, Vlaeminck’s return was cut short without her even bowling a single delivery, and skipper Healy looked visibly shaken as the pacer’s knee got stuck in the outfield, making her land awkwardly on the shoulder as she dived to make a stop. She lay on the ropes, clutching her shoulder and seething in pain. This comes barely weeks after the defending champions had a significant injury scare at the start of the final preparatory series at home before the World Cup against New Zealand when Gardner herself had to sit out due to a concussion after a warm-up routine gone wrong as she collided with teammate Georgia Wareham.
Seeing the grim faces as Vlaeminck descended, Ellyse Perry quickly gathered the Group and addressed the huddle.
“To see her go down like that, we had to regroup quickly, and Pez just brought us all in, and she kind of reverted back to the Mackay incident where that kind of erupted pretty quickly and just to make sure that everyone was okay and to kind of get on with it. I guess that’s the nature of sport. Unlucky things happen, and we must get on with it and wait until after the game to ensure that Tay is okay. She is in good spirits, which is nice to see,” Gardner said.
Even without Vlaeminck, Australia’s attack walked all over the Pakistan batting line-up, with Gardner returning figures of up 4/21 and Wareham and Annabel Sutherland picking two apiece to restrict them to just 82 on the penultimate ball of their innings. But Australia’s woes continued on the injuries front.
Healy led the chase from the front with a fluent 23-ball 37, inclusive of five boundaries, before she hobbled off the field, grimacing in pain, after completing a painful brace on the first ball of the 10th over of Australia’s humble chase. Gardner replaced her in the middle when the opener retired hurt to see the chase through as Australia, given their batting depth, hardly felt the pinch. How they pick themselves up from here on remains to be seen.
“Quite a bit has happened tonight, so it’s staying together as a group and staying close,” Gardner said on how Australia would reset and regroup before the Sunday blockbuster match. “A couple of our mates have been injured, and we certainly want to consider them when we progress into the next game.
“There’s certainly going to have to be changes, that’s pretty obvious, but I think it’s ensuring that we stick together as a whole unit. They are our mates at the end of the day, so ensuring their well-being is a top [priority], and then we have to switch pretty quickly to that India game. It’s certainly going to be a challenge – they’re one of the best T20 cricket teams in the world. So, being able to switch our focus quickly is certainly something we’re going to have to do, and just being able to reset tomorrow is going to be key,” Gardner said.
Australia has yet to be challenged on the field thus far in their three group games, and they already have a foot in the semifinals. But, the two injury setbacks will throw them a selection curveball ahead of an all-important final league match against India that could potentially decide the top two to emerge from this ‘ Group of Death’ involving Sri Lanka and New Zealand besides Pakistan. Healy and Vlaeminck’s further participation in the tournament remains contingent on what the scans reveal in the day’s turnaround before the India clash back in Sharjah. While Vlaeminck has a like-for-like replacement in the squad of 15, a rejig in the batting order is imminent for Australia should Healy miss any more action this World Cup.
Australia could consider two left-handers up top within the pool available, with Phoebe Litchfield earning a promotion. At the same time, Healy’s regular opening partner, Beth Mooney, will take over the wicketkeeping duties. “We probably haven’t had a chance to talk about that yet, but we’ve thought about a few options,” Shelley Nitschke, the Australian head coach, said on the possibility of a new opening pair. “But we’ll just assess where that lands. We’ve got Beth Mooney to step up and keep if required, but we haven’t had those discussions as a coaching staff yet.”
Of course, they can also exercise the option to fly in reinforcements during the eleventh hour. “Look, if we have to [fly in replacements], yeah. We’ve lost – well, two went off injured tonight, so we have to ensure we’ve got some coverage. It depends on the prognosis, I guess, of those two injuries; that’s something we need to consider.”
Unbeaten so far, Australia is currently top of the table with a net run rate so comfortable (+2.786) that it’s going to take a beating and a half to send them crashing. For India, though, it could be a virtual quarterfinal. In the past two editions, Harmanpreet & Co. have a 2-0 group stages record against Australia when the teams have been grouped together.
Never before in the history of T20 World Cups has Australia not qualified for the semifinals or failed to make it to the title clash since the very first edition of the tournament.
Akin to their 2020 home World Cup campaign, where Australia lost Vlaeminck to a tournament-eve foot injury and Ellyse Perry to a torn hamstring just ahead of the knockouts, the six-time champions will have to dig deep and find strength within as they move forward in their bid to complete an unprecedented haul across genders. The following eight days will test Australia’s character and depth like never before, with their ‘best in the world’ badge on the line.
