Following Meg Lanning’s retirement from international duty, Alyssa Healy has been chosen Australia Women’s new captain.
Healy has enormous shoes to fill in Lanning’s, but she successfully retained the Women’s Ashes as a stand-in throughout the summer, a role she has occupied at various stages over the last year.
Lanning oversaw the T20 World Cup victory in South Africa in early 2023, as well as the Commonwealth Games gold medal in the summer of 2022. However, given Healy’s prior experience, there shouldn’t be too much of a learning curve.
“I am honoured to accept the role of captain and grateful for the opportunity to lead our team,” said Healy, who will be assisted by Tahlia McGrath as vice-captain.
“I’ve really enjoyed the support of the players over the past few months and their encouragement to continue to be who I am and lead the group like I normally would from within.
“My approach will remain consistent to what it has been previously. But I’ll make my own mark on the role and be sure that I’m doing the best I possibly can for this group to maintain the success that we’ve had.
“It’s an exciting time to be involved with this team, we’re seeing the emergence of incredible young talent and are challenging ourselves to continually evolve as a group.”
“It’s a privilege to have been offered the vice-captaincy, and I’m excited to support Alyssa as she takes on the captaincy,” McGrath added.
“Alyssa and I have played together for a long time, we know our respective leadership styles well and I look forward to helping her lead our group.”
Lanning, who commanded an all-conquering, record-breaking team, has been Australia’s captain since replacing Jodie Fields in 2014, standing in during the Women’s Ashes at the age of 21 before taking over full-time across all formats in June of that year.
Healy’s first assignment as captain will be a one-off Test against India in Mumbai, followed by a three-match ODI and T20I series against the same opponents.
