Nicola Carey aims for Women’s T20 WC spot after return to Australian set-up

St. Kitts, March 27 (IANS) Australia’s seam-bowling all-rounder Nicola Carey is aiming to seal a place in the squad for the 2026 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, to be played in England from June 12 to July 5, after making a return to the national side on the ongoing tour of West Indies.

Nicola played key roles in Australia’s triumphs at the 2020 T20 World Cup and 2022 ODI World Cup, before turning down a Cricket Australia (CA) contract due to lack of game time. Three years after that, Nicola was recalled during the recent home series against India and was retained for the tour to the Caribbean.

"I obviously haven't been here for a while, but coming back in, there's a lot of familiar faces, which is always nice. When you’re out of it, you sit back and think, I don’t know how they do it, not being at home that often. But when you’re in it, you just do it. It’s quite fun being around the group," Nicola was quoted as saying by ICC on Friday.

With the T20 World Cup looming, Nicola admitted playing in the tournament is a major motivational factor for her. "It’s a massive tournament. Everyone here would want to be a part of that. That’s the carrot dangling at the end of this. Everyone’s trying to put their best foot forward. I’m sure we’ll find out soon,” she said.

Australia won the T20I series 3-0 and now turn their attention to the ODIs against the West Indies, their final assignment before the T20 World Cup takes place. The absence of Annabel Sutherland, rested to manage her workload, has opened opportunities for others, including Nicola.

"Belsey is massive for this team and when you take her out, that sort of leaves a couple of gaps, both batting and bowling. There’s that many all-rounders floating around, so I guess that’s opportunities for different people to step up.

“It's been nice to sort of try different things and open the bowling. You haven't done a lot of that even back home, so it's been cool to experience different things within this team,” said Nicola.

Reflecting on the team’s transition from T20Is to ODIs, Nicola signed off by saying Australia’s plans were coming together. "It’s nice to change up the location here in St Kitts, obviously coming off the back of those three T20Is.

"There’s a fair bit we can take out of that. We had a lot of discussion around how we wanted to go about it. I think we saw that come to fruition, which was really pleasing to see,” she concluded.

--IANS

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