Australia name Alyssa Healy new full-time captain ahead of India tour

After the retirement of Meg Lanning, Australia have made full-time leadership changes, with Alyssa Healy and Tahlia McGrath handed captain and vice-captain reins respectively.

Healy replaces Lanning as permanent captain in all three formats, with Australia set to travel to India for a sole Test match, three ODIs and three T20Is from December 21 to January 9.
Healy led the Australian side on an interim basis for series against England, Ireland and the West Indies, and takes the role with Lanning calling time on her international career last month. McGrath has also led the team, twice taking the captaincy in the last year when Healy was unavailable.

With over 250 international appearances to her name Healy has been a cornerstone of Australia's success over the last 14 years, playing in six trophy-winning T20 World Cup campaigns, the victorious Cricket World Cup 2022 success in the 50-over format, and Australia's gold-medal winning Commonwealth Games effort in Birmingham in the same year, an ICC report said.
As captain, Healy wants to carry on from Lanning, though vows to bring a personal touch to the role.
"I am honoured to accept the role of captain and am grateful for the opportunity to lead our team," she said.
"I've really enjoyed the support of the players over the past few months and their encouragement to continue to be who I am and lead the group like I normally would from within," Healy said.
"I'm obviously very different to Meg, I'm not her, I'm a very different style of leader as well … Meg is really good at leading from the front and really pulling everyone along with her," she said.
"My approach will remain consistent to what it has been previously, but I’ll make my own mark on the role and be sure that I'm doing the best I possibly can for this group to maintain the success that we've had," Healy said.
Australia has been the yardstick of the women's international game, even regarded one of the strongest ever teams in any women's sport, though face arguably their biggest threat to their No.1 status in the next 12 months, which includes another T20 World Cup campaign.
Australia retained the Ashes this year without Lanning's leadership and output with the bat, though it came largely off the back of victory in the sole Test match in the series (worth four points in the multi-format system), losing both the T20I and ODI series 2-1.
As the likes of England and India close the gap, as well as South Africa who made their mark in a home T20 World Cup campaign earlier in the year, next year's tournament in Bangladesh could be considered the most open women's competition in recent memory.
McGrath said her appointment as vice-captain was a "privilege", though understands the importance of her role in a new chapter for Australia's women's cricket.
"Alyssa and I have played together for a long time, we know our respective leadership styles well," McGrath said.
"I look forward to helping her lead our group as we embark on a busy, but exciting international schedule," she said.
Australia's 16-player group travel to Mumbai on Wednesday for the series, though Healy is no guarantee of featuring in the highly-anticipated red ball clash at the Wankhede Stadium, due to a freak hand injury.
The wicket-keeper underwent surgery on her right index finger after an incident with her two dogs
at home in October, but remains confident of taking the field.
“I assume I'll be out there for the first Test in Mumbai, they're going to have to do a lot to stop me walking out there and catching the first delivery," Healy said.
"Everything's going really, really well," she added.
Australia squad: Darcie Brown, Lauren Cheatle (Test only), Heather Graham, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris (T20s only), Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham
India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Shubha Satheesh, Harleen Deol, Saika Ishaque, Renuka Singh Thakur, Titas Sadhu, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar.
(UNI)