Rachael Haynes to step up as captain in Meg Lanning's absence

Cricket Australia has named Rachael Louise Haynes as captain, for the forthcoming Women's Ashes series against England. The 30-year- old left-hand batswoman and left-arm medium pacer, has played 3 tests, 36 ODI’ s and 27 T20’s for Australia. She made her debut against the same team eight years back and will stand in for regular captain Meg Lanning, who is injured. Lanning will miss the entire multi-format series following a shoulder surgery that will rule her out for up to eight months.



 



The series starts with a one-day international game at Allan Border Field in Brisbane on 22 October, as Australia looks to retain the Ashes on home soil, after winning the series in England in 2015. Having already deputized for Lanning, when shoulder problems interrupted her WWC17 campaign earlier this year, Haynes has some idea of what lies ahead. But the task of leading Australia through a multi-format series against England, including the first-ever day-night Ashes Test at North Sydney, Oval in November, will be a considerable one.



 



"To be named captain of your country, particularly in such a big series like the Ashes is a huge honor," Haynes said. " It's going to be a really exciting series. I think the multi-format points system doesn’t favor either team, so to win the Ashes you genuinely have to be the best team across all three formats. To be the first team, male or female, to play in a day-night Ashes Test match is going to be awesome. To have that opportunity is really exciting; you can only ever be part of history once."



 



The decision to elevate Haynes to the captaincy leaves Alex Blackwell remaining vice-captain, a move explained earlier this year during the World Cup, as based upon the fact that Haynes' leadership style for Victoria (in the domestic league) is not dissimilar to that of Lanning for Australia. At that time, the national selector Shawn Flegler said that Haynes, a left-handed batswoman, adapted well to the demands of captaincy.



 



“Rachael has huge leadership experience, including guiding Victoria to back-to-back national T20 titles, and alongside Alex, will ensure the team is led to continue their current form," Flegler said. "We know that Rachael is capable of coming in and doing the job that is asked of her, as she demonstrated in New Zealand earlier this year when she scored a half-century after a lengthy absence from the national side."



 



Rachael is all set to be 17th captain for the Australia Women’s side, and with her new leadership tactics, Australia will try to dominate the current ODI World Champions at home. Blackwell remaining vice-captain, will help Rachael a lot in making decisions, as Alex has a lot of cricketing experience, and guided the side 34 times in all formats.