Tayla Vlaeminck will miss Australia’s three One-Day Internationals and sole Test match against India because of concerns over her fitness.
The highly-regarded fast bowler - one of the quickest in the women’s game - was sidelined for a lengthy period when she suffered a foot injury in the lead up to last year’s T20 World Cup.
She returned to the national side for Australia’s T20 and ODI tour of New Zealand earlier this year but coach Matthew Mott confirmed Vlaeminck would only be considered for the final T20 stage of the multi-format series against India.
“Tayla’s had some little niggles throughout her build up down in Victoria and that's something that we've been monitoring all the way through,” said Mott. “And she does have to step up her [bowling] loads gradually but she's presented really well.”
A fully fit Vlaeminck was a strong prospect of appearing throughout the series, particularly in the absence of Megan Schutt, who withdrew from the series to be with her wife and newborn child.
But Australia has a busy schedule in the next twelve months with the Women’s Ashes series, the fifty-over World Cup and the Commonwealth Games all on the horizon.
“We're excited about what she's going to do,” Mott said. “We’re going to manage her well, we’ve got a huge 18 months for her as a young fast bowler and we know the impact that she can have when she plays.”
Vlaeminck’s absence for more than half the series means a likely Test debut for one of Australia’s posse of young bowlers, including Darcie Brown, Stella Campbell and Maitlan Brown.
But Mott acknowledged the difficulty of stepping up to the bowling loads required and the rigour of Test cricket, particularly when women don’t play multi-day cricket domestically.
“I think that's the biggest unknown,” said Mott. “Just because we don't play a lot of Test cricket it's difficult to predict.
“I think that they're resilient strong bowlers but they're young and history suggests that they're at their most vulnerable age so that's where we'll have to be really smart about what the One-Day series looks like, how we can graduate their loads, safely, and then manage them well in the Test match.
“What we have found in our stats for last few tests is that spinners bowl a lot of the overs as well.
“So having someone like Darcie come in for short spells is probably how she's going to be used anyway, so that's an ongoing conversation.
“Obviously Meg will make those decisions out on the field but I think that our quicks will certainly be used a lot more for impact than the grunt work in the middle overs.”
Mott also said that Alyssa Healy’s dual roles of wicketkeeping and opening the batting may be reassessed for the Test match, based on how much time she has spent behind the stumps before batting.
“It is something we’ve discussed with her and I suppose that would probably be more around the second innings if we spent a lot of time in the field and she had to go back out straightaway,” said Mott. “It's something we'd probably review but she's pretty keen to open.
“I think she's well suited to it. I read in the in the paper there that she's certainly modelling yourself on some of the great Indian players that have done it and transformed their game from One-Day cricket.
“I thought in the last Test match that we played in England she really set the tone.
“She was 50 at the first drinks break just playing good cricket shots, so that's something we see her playing really well and I think she's a strong fit player who can get through as much as she can with her wicketkeeping and she's excited to take on the challenge opening the batting for Australia.”
