While the T20 World Cup semi-final loss was tough to take, Ash Gardner is looking forward to a big summer ahead that will culminate in a pink-ball Test at the MCG
Ashleigh Gardner says the packed cricket schedule has left her with no time to dwell on Australia’s shock T20 World Cup semi-final exit, as she prepares for a return to the green and gold.
It has been just over a month since Australia missed out on what would have been a record-breaking fourth-consecutive T20 World Cup win, and the entire league stage of WBBL|10 has been completed in that time.
The cricket calendar has become far busier than when Australia last returned from an ICC event without a trophy – the 50-over World Cup in 2017 – giving the team little time to ponder upon the loss.
“It’s sunk in pretty quickly, just because we kind of didn’t have time to really dwell on it,” Gardner told cricket.com.au at the MCG last week.
Australia’s women will resume their international summer with an ODI series against India starting next week after the WBBL|10 season finishes on Sunday.
It will be the first time the team will take the field together since they were knocked-out of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup by South Africa in the semi-final.
Having featured in every single T20 World Cup final apart from the opening edition in 2009, Australia had looked well-placed to make it to another in the UAE, going through the group stage unscratched, but were stung by a determined Proteas unit in the semis.
While there has been little time to dwell on the loss, Gardner said Australia would take important lessons from it to ensure they were not caught short in the future.
“We can change some things and we can just have, I guess, more of an outlook on it and just being able to change things going into the next series and the next games against those same opponents and make sure we are better next time,” she said.
“It was one of those moments that we got outplayed, and it was frustrating to see, but I think credits to South Africa in that game, they obviously played brilliantly.
“As a whole unit, we were disappointed, and we had fair enough reason to … I think we played great cricket probably throughout the whole tournament and we got outplayed in the semi-final when it really mattered.
“So, it’s just one of those moments that we can reflect on.”
Gardner’s own returns with the bat were limited in the tournament – an aggregate of 31 from four innings with scores of 12, 6, 7no and 6.
In the WBBL, she accumulated 103 runs in nine innings, with a high score of 49.
However, the allrounder was the third-highest wicket taker at the end of the league stage with 16 scalps.
Reflecting on her own performance over this period, Gardner emphasised on the importance of staying positive and having clarity in decision making.
“In T20 cricket the game can kind of get away from you pretty quickly and trying to be as consistent as possible sometimes is easier said than done in this format,” she said.
“It’s pretty unrelenting and you make one bad decision and you’re out. So it’s probably just making better decisions, and I guess (it’s about) having really clear plans in place … and just having a really positive mindset as well.
“I think sometimes when you’re in a negative mindset you tend to make the wrong decision and for me it’s just I guess believing in myself, being really confident in my ability.”
Australia are set to face three different opponents over the next two-and-a-half months with New Zealand and England to follow India.
The team will be looking to put the disappointment of the World Cup loss behind and regroup quickly with the next 50-over global tournament already in sight, but the biennial multi-format Ashes series is in itself a much-anticipated event on the cricketing calendar.
With 50 days until the #Ashes series kicks off in Sydney, we’re pumped to launch the Women’s Ashes Hub! 💻
Check it out here: https://t.co/8PWWE4IEut pic.twitter.com/mJVkg8LKnh
“Being involved in any Ashes campaign is always really super exciting. It’s almost just under probably a World Cup,” Gardner emphasised on the importance of the series scheduled to culminate the summer.
“We know that we match up really well against England and we always have some really fierce battles against those guys. So we know that they’re going to come hard and they certainly won’t take it lightly.”
The upcoming Ashes series will mark 90 years of the rivalry and will involve a pink-ball Test at the MCG, which Gardner says will be a bucket-list moment for her.
“I never thought I’d be able to play a Test match here, so hopefully we can get an amazing crowd in and just keep leveraging off what we’ve been able to do for female cricket in this country.
“To see 30,000 people here at the MCG to watch some Test match cricket would be amazing.”
First ODI: January 12: North Sydney Oval, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT
Second ODI: January 14: CitiPower Centre, Melbourne, 10.05am AEDT
Third ODI: January 17: Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 10.05am AEDT
First T20I: January 20: SCG, Sydney, 7.40pm AEDT
Second T20I: January 23: Manuka Oval, Canberra, 7.40pm AEDT
Third T20I: January 25: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, 7.10pm ACDT (7.40pm AEDT)
Day-night Test: January 30 – February 2: MCG, Melbourne, 2.30pm AEDT
