Rachael Haynes gives Australia injury scare ahead of second ODI

The vice-captain was struck a painful blow on the elbow in the nets and sent for a scan

Australia suffered an injury scare on the eve of the second ODI against India in Mackay when Rachael Haynes was struck a painful blow on the elbow during a net session.

Footage from Cricket Australia showed vice-captain Haynes, who made an unbeaten 93 in the opening match of the series while passing 2000 ODI runs, turning away in pain before leaving the net a few moments after the blow and she was later sent for a scan.

Haynes has played every match of Australia’s world-record 25-game unbeaten run in ODIs and hasn’t missed a match in the format since the 2017 World Cup. Should she not be available for Friday’s clash it would require an adjustment to the batting order with the most obviously solution being Beth Mooney to open with Alyssa Healy as she does in T20Is although the uncapped Georgia Redmayne could be another option.

Australia have had a number of injuries to contend with around this series with Jess Jonassen unavailable throughout and Tayla Vlaeminck not in consideration until the T20Is having suffered an Achilles problem. Allrounder Nicola Carey was also unavailable for the opening game with an abdominal strain.

However, with a large squad necessitated by Covid-19 the vacancies that have emerged in the XI are giving Matthew Mott and Meg Lanning a chance to assess the depth available ahead of next year’s World Cup.

That was on display in the first match when Darcie Brown and debutant Hannah Darlington shared six wickets. With Mott conscious of the workloads on the young pace bowlers during the multi-format series there is a chance that the other uncapped quicks, Stella Campbell and Maitlan Brown, will also come into consideration.

“Think this is the biggest squad I’ve been a part of,” spinner Sophie Molineux said, “and a lot of them are young quicks, so it’s been great in the nets facing them all, they are all really excited, and they’ve been given the reins to be able to rip in and bowl short and try and scare opposition batters which is great for women’s cricket. The way the girls have attacked has been great.”

Molineux herself returned to the ODI side on Tuesday to fill the gap left by Jonassen’s absence, having not been able to force her way into the XI on the New Zealand tour earlier this year. She claimed 2 for 39, including the key wicket of Mithali Raj, in what was just her seventh ODI since making her debut in 2018 and enjoyed the ability to spend time working over the batters that 50-over cricket allows.

“Think one-day cricket sort of drags out everything, you can set up the batters and have a bit more time rather than the frantic T20,” she said. “I really enjoy being able to put in a couple of overs to the same batter. It definitely suits our team, one-day cricket, the skill of every player is more on show.”