We have been out here for a few weeks now and have seen the World Cup advertised and published excellently. I am really looking forward to participating in a top-class tournament again.
The advertisements and noise are similar to the 2017 tournament, but the 50-over World Cup was a long time ago. We are a slightly different team, led by a different coach, and we have won some new exciting young players who have done really well in this tournament.
The day after we lost the last T20 World Cup final against Australia in the West Indies in 2018, I sat down with our former head coach Mark Robinson and then assistant coach Ali Maiden and considered how we wanted to approach the tournament in Australia.
When Lisa Keightley took over in January, it was clear that her plans matched what we were looking at, and it was really exciting to work with her.
We were very specific with the players we wanted here in Australia. We have many different match-winners and proven world-class players, but also some younger ones who have so far opted for international cricket very well. From 1-15 we have a squad that can win cricket games.
We played a lot of T20 cricket last year and spent a lot of time figuring out what our best team for the format is. We will definitely not be favorites for the tournament – Australia will obviously wear this label at home alongside the record they had in T20 cricket.
For us, it’s about playing every game at the same time – that worked so well for us in 2017. We will focus on how we play cricket and want to reach the semi-finals. When we do this, we take it from there.
I think we learned a lot from the latest tri-series. We were put under pressure in some really tight games, which is the perfect preparation for a World Cup.
They want to be challenged and tested and we definitely were. We beat Australia and India, but we still want to improve a lot.
We just didn’t qualify for the tri-series final by run rate. Everyone beat everyone, which is great when you see how you take part in a World Cup and have been tested. This allowed us to refine our plans a little.
Ultimately, we came here to be ready for the World Cup, and that’s exactly what the Tri-Series did for us. Whatever happens, Australia 2020 will be a great competition for women’s cricket.
I hope that as many people as possible come out and support the competition – not just home team fans, but hopefully some who watch us in the different places we play.
We would like to be successful in promoting the growth of the sport at home, but at the moment the only thing we care about is doing well.
Hopefully, if we play exciting, entertaining cricket as we did recently, more people will come and watch us.