Australia captain Meg Lanning said her side is ready to embark on a new journey with ICC Women's ODI World Cup 2022.
Lanning reflected on the changes that had been made since Australia lost to eventual runners-up India in the 2017 semi-final. The 2020 T20 World Cup winner was speaking alongside the captains of Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies.
"This group that we've got here is very different to 2017. I think the majority of the players were not even involved in the tournament, and the majority of the staff also weren't there. The impacts of the 2017 World Cup have obviously changed the way we play but, from now really moving forward, this World Cup is completely different," Lanning said as per an official release.
"It's a new World Cup, everybody starts on zero points and needs to play well throughout the tournament. It's a great challenge for our group but, to be honest, we don't really talk about 2017 anymore. It obviously had a big impact on us but now it's a completely different group, and we're on a new journey together," she added.
Lanning also revealed the potential replacements in the team, should Australia need to field members of management staff as permitted by a rule for the tournament.
The ICC announced yesterday that teams could field a side of nine players and include two female substitutes from their management staff, to ensure the competition runs as normally as possible.
Lanning added: "I asked our physio and media manager what their preferred fielding position were if they were to take the field. Hopefully, it doesn't come to that for any team. It's an interesting way to go about it and I understand we want to get cricket in, we want to play the games. But if that did occur, I think it'd be a pretty interesting situation."
The tournament kicks off on March 4 with hosts New Zealand taking on the West Indies.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor