Jess Jonassen would relish the opportunity to bat up the order if it arises

Australia allrounder Jess Jonassen feels the absence of Ellyse Perry is an opportunity for players like her to step up and do the job with the bat in the middle-order when they take on New Zealand in the three-match Rose Bowl ODI series starting on Saturday (October 3) at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane.



Jonassen, who has played 68 ODIs for Australia so far, hasn’t had many opportunities with the bat in a star-studded line-up. She played predominantly as a bowling allrounder and batted in the lower-order most of the times in the 41 innings she made it to the batting crease. Perry, who is the preferred number four batter in ODIs, will be missing the series having re-injured her hamstring while training during the T20 series.



“I'm forever hopeful; It’s quite challenging to get up the order of this side. At the moment with Pez being ruled out of this series sort of poses a really good opportunity for a number of us to fill that middle order role,” Jonassen said during a media interaction on Friday (October 2) ahead of the first ODI.



“We've got some incredible rounders within this side as well. I'd always be open for the opportunity and hopefully if it comes that I'm able to make the most of it, because I've done a lot of hard work on my batting.”



“I was really pleased with the Big Bash last year that I had with the bat. And I've always said that I just want to continue to build on that, that it's a matter of only one good consistent season. I've worked really hard throughout the pre-season on a number of things with my batting and worked really closely with Ash Noffke (Ashley Noffke, Queensland Fire and Brisbane Heat head coach) again. If I can continue to build on that and keep putting the runs on the board, that hopefully takes the decision out of their hands that they can almost just give me an opportunity to bat a little bit higher.”



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“I just love to try and keep things really simple that regardless of the situation that I could potentially come in to the crease, that things don't necessarily change too much from a mentality point of view and what I want to try and execute out there. If the opportunity arises that I can face a few more deliveries, then hopefully I can just do what I. I'm hopeful that I can do and know what I'm capable of doing and just do it for a longer period.”



“But I'm quite happy sitting back at the moment watching what all the other girls are able to do. And we'll see someone like Ash Gardner, the way that she hits the ball. I’m quite happy to be watching from the sidelines.”



The left-arm spinner picked ODI cricket as her preferred format and she believes fifty-over cricket provides the bowlers with more opportunity to build pressure over a spell as opposed to the T20 format.



“50-over cricket is probably one of my favourite formats and I think if we played more Test cricket, I'd probably say that as well,” she said.



“I enjoy the idea of being able to bowl more than four overs as well, that you have the ability to fully get into a spell, whereas in the T20 game you could still be bowling your best delivery and it could still get hit over the boundary. In the 50-over game, the ability to build pressure can last multiple overs, I guess in T20s only a matter of balls.”



“I think for us, as well as an Australian side, the fact that we've been able to have a little bit of success in the 50-over format as well, in recent times, not only against New Zealand but across the board as well. I think everyone's sort of pretty confident leading into that, that people knowing they'll have extra time with both bat and ball and being able to hopefully execute for longer periods of time as well.”



Australia currently hold the record of winning the most number of consecutive ODIs in women’s cricket with an 18-match winning streak and could equal the overall record held by their men’s side during 2003 if they whitewash New Zealand in the series.



“We're definitely aware of it, not necessarily within our squad and what we're talking about, but you obviously see it in the media and whatnot. It's been an incredible achievement so far for us to win so many on the trot now,” Jonassen said.



“It's not a record that we're necessarily setting out to try and break. It's the old cliche, we literally do take it a game at a time. I think because we know of the calibre of players in this New Zealand set up, that they go to any number of people that can take any game away from you. So, we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves and just want to focus on the first game of the series and hopefully locking that down.”



“If we do get to that position, that we can potentially go for a clean sweep that. I think the noise and the chatter in and around that that world record will be pretty much at the forefront by then.”



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New Zealand defeated Australia by five wickets in the final T20I on Wednesday (September 30) to register their first win on the tour thanks to allround heroics from Amelia Kerr. Australia already wrapped up the series with the wins from the first two T20Is. Jonassen had special words of praise for her Brisbane Heat teammate.



“She's somebody that doesn't really feel the pressure which for somebody so young it's a little bit scary. She’s quite competent, capable to to take the game away from you with both bat and ball.”



“I think we've got some really good plans against her from a bowling perspective that now we just sort of need to make sure that we're on top of it from a batting perspective as well, that we know the areas that she hits. But ultimately, if we just got to execute where we need to bowl the ball and hopefully build pressure from that perspective.”



“Looking ahead from a WBBL perspective, that it's really nice to see the way that she was performing there and in probably a similar role to what she'd played for us during the Big Bash,” Jonassen concluded.