Phoebe Litchfield has returned from a hip injury, and Australia will bat first in the second Rose Bowl T20I at North Sydney Oval after losing the toss for the first time in five white-ball matches this month.
Litchfield missed the final one-dayer against Bangladesh and Sunday’s first trans-Tasman T20I with a low-grade hip strain. She replaces Tahlia McGrath in the XI.
Teams
Australia XI: Beth Mooney (wk), Georgia Voll, Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Georgia Wareham, Annabel Sutherland, Nicola Carey, Sophie Molineux (c), Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton
New Zealand XI: Georgia Plimmer, Flora Devonshire, Melie Kerr (c), Maddy Green, Izzy Sharp, Brooke Halliday, Jess Kerr, Polly Inglis (wk), Rosemary Mair, Nensi Patel, Bree Illing
Australia are otherwise unchanged. Their batting line-up must set a target for the first time this month, after the team opted to bowl first on Sunday and in all three ODIs against the Tigresses.
New Zealand also go in unchanged. They hope to put the hosts under pressure after Australia’s collapse in Sunday’s opener, when the home side stumbled from 1-102 to 8-159 chasing 163 before edging home with seven balls to spare.
Wareham: “We maybe just tipped the scale”
On Monday, Australia allrounder Georgia Wareham said her team’s natural aggression with the bat had tipped into recklessness.
“We were probably not as clinical as we would like,” Wareham said. “I think we probably threw away some wickets on some balls that shouldn’t have been getting us out.
“But I think the way that we batted, as a team we always talk about batting with freedom – we maybe just tipped the scale a little bit into reckless last night.”
New Zealand chase Rose Bowl glory
New Zealand must come back from a 0-1 deficit to win their first T20I series against their trans-Tasman rivals since 2017.
White Ferns opener Georgia Plimmer hit a career-best 85no on Sunday. She said the team’s fighting effort in the series opener, and the lure of the Rose Bowl trophy, would drive the tourists. Australia has held the coveted silverware for 26 years, and it is now available for T20I series as well as one-dayers.
“Before this series, we watched a lot of videos from the Rose Bowl and past legends that have played in the Rose Bowl, and a key theme that came across was a lot to do with wanting to fight to the end and scrap against our ‘older sister’ rivals in Australia,” she said.
“To see that (in game one), especially as a quite a new group and after a lot of new change with losing the three legends as well, was pretty cool to see.”
NRMA Insurance Women’s T20 Series v New Zealand
All matches are played at North Sydney Oval, starting at 7:15pm AEDT.
Australia T20I squad: Sophie Molineux (c), Ashleigh Gardner (vc), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Nicola Carey, Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
New Zealand T20I squad: Melie Kerr (c), Eden Carson, Flora Devonshire, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Bree Illing, Polly Inglis (wk), Bella James, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Nensi Patel, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Izzy Sharp
All women’s international matches will be shown live on Seven, 7Plus, Kayo Sports and Foxtel.