That’s the view of Australia captain Meg Lanning, who insists all-rounder Ellyse Perry will shake off shoulder concerns and get back to winning matches batting down the order.
Perry hit the winning runs against Sri Lanka but was castled for a golden duck in opening defeat to India, also taking just one wicket in two matches with the ball. “Batting Ellyse down the order is something we’ve gone with for a little while now, we’re flexible in our batting line-up,” said Lanning.
“The top six could all open and it comes up to the match-ups and the game situations. We’ve gone with left-right combinations a little bit, which is what we did the other night with Nicola Carey coming in when Rachael Haynes got out.
“Ellyse is a world-class player and no doubt she’ll get her chance. We just have to be really flexible to the team’s needs. I’m sure there are a few players in this competition who are managing injuries and she’s a professional, she’s dealing with it very well so we’re not expecting anything major out of that.”
Australia got their home World Cup campaign back on track against Sri Lanka, Lanning and Haynes steering the recovery from 10 for three to a five-wicket win.
It’s knockout cricket from here on in for the four-time winners, who face Bangladesh for the first time in T20Is at Canberra’s Manuka Oval.
‘What happened in the last match doesn’t matter’
Salma Khatun’s side are capable of springing surprises, beating India twice at the 2018 Asia Cup, but will have their work cut out at the capital’s high-scoring venue.
Jahanara Alam will lead the seam attack tasked with extending the patchy form of star Australia opener Alyssa Healy. Jahanara, who captained her country at the 2016 T20 World Cup, feels juggernauts Australia will have contend with an ever-improving Bangladesh side.
“We’ll go for the win, what happened in the last match doesn’t matter,” said the seamer. “This is our fourth World Cup but the first time we’ve played against Australia. We have analysed their videos but we know this is a big platform to compete with a big team and defending champion.
“We think we are improving a lot. We’re a little behind, we haven’t got that much experience against the big teams, but we have been preparing ourselves in tournaments. Australia have got a lot of big names in their team. They are strong with pace and spin, we have got good players but we need to execute our plan properly.”
(With ICC inputs)
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