Healy plays, Voll debuts and opens; England omit Dean for Dunkley

Australia won the toss and chose to bowl against England

Alyssa Healy is fit to play the historic women’s Ashes Test at the MCG and Georgia Voll makes her Test debut as Australia chose to bowl first on a green pitch after winning the toss.

England have opted to play three seamers and one spinner with Charlie Dean missing out while Sophia Dunkley returns at No.5 to bolster the batting line-up after England played only six batters in their last Test match against South Africa.

All the intrigue pre-game was whether Healy would be passed fit and where she might bat given Australia’s top seven has been unchanged in their last three Test matches. With Beth Mooney required to take the gloves due to Healy’s foot injury, she has been shifted down to No.6 after opening in the last three Tests and five of her seven to-date. But Healy has not moved to the top. She has instead moved to No.4 and Voll will make her Test debut as opener. The 21-year-old becomes Australia’s 185th female Test representative, after being presented her cap from former Australia captain Belinda Clark.

Australia have picked an extraordinarily long batting line-up with Tahlia McGrath moving from the No.4 position, which she held in their last Test against South Africa last February, to No.8. They have opted for only three specialist bowlers in Kim Garth, Darcie Brown and Alana King with the rest of the overs to come from the allrounders in Ash Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland and McGrath.

England have opted for three seamers with Lauren Bell, Lauren Filer and Ryana MacDonald-Gay all retaining their place. Ecclestone will be the main spin option with Heather Knight able to support while Nat Sciver-Brunt could bowl quite a bit on the seam-friendly surface. Kate Cross was unavailable for selection after failing to recover from her back injury.

Australia are chasing the first whitewash in women’s multi-format Ashes history, as they lead the series 12 points to nil after claiming the first six white-ball fixtures.

Australia: 1 Phoebe Litchfield, 2 Georgia Voll, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Alyssa Healy (capt), 5 Annabel Sutherland, 6 Beth Mooney (wk), 7 Ash Gardner, 8 Tahlia McGrath, 9 Alana King, 10 Kim Garth, 11 Darcie Brown

England: 1 Tammy Beaumont, 2 Maia Bouchier, 3 Heather Knight (capt), 4 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 5 Sophia Dunkley, 6 Danni Wyatt-Hodge, 7 Amy Jones (wk), 8 Sophie Ecclestone, 9 Ryana MacDonald-Gay, 10 Lauren Filer, 11 Lauren Bell

Alex Malcolm is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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