Reigning champions to begin World Cup prep with India tour

Reigning world champions Australia will ramp up their preparations for their T20 World Cup title defence next month with the schedule for their five-match T20 tour of India locked in overnight.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed the venues and dates for the series, which will see all five matches played in Mumbai with D.Y. Patil Stadium host the first two fixtures on December 9 and 11 and the Brabourne Stadium the remaining three on December 14, 17 and 20.

It will be the Australia's first games since winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August, and one of two T20 series they will play ahead of the 2023 Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa next February, where they will be vying for a third consecutive title.

Playing India will be an ideal test for an Australia side undergoing a period of transformation; they will have a new vice-captain in Alyssa Healy for the tour, and if Meg Lanning does not return from her current break from the game, the wicketkeeper-batter is set to stand in as skipper.

Australia will also need to switch up an XI that went unchanged through their undefeated Commonwealth Games campaign, filling the spot vacated by the retired Rachael Haynes, and potentially Lanning.

India have proved Australia's closest rival in the format in recent years, winning the opening match of the 2020 World Cup in Sydney, and pushing the No.1 ranked Australians during a 2021 series on the Gold Coast, and on both occasions they met during the Commonwealth Games.

They will be the first-ever Australian women's team to play at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in western Mumbai, but key members of the squad do have previous experience at Brabourne Stadium, which hosted a T20I tri-series also featuring India and England in March 2018.

Australia were triumphant on that occasion, winning both matches against India and splitting honours against England during the round-robin phase, before defeating Heather Knight's team in the final.

That series, which was part of Australia's last tour of the subcontinent nation where they also whitewashed the hosts 3-0 in ODI matches prior to the T20s, flew largely under the radar with the eyes of the cricketing world on the controversy that was playing out concurrently in Cape Town with the men's national team.

But the tour marked a turning pointing for Meg Lanning's 20-over side.

It was their first win in a T20I series since 2015, and Australia have not lost a series in the format since, winning the 2018 and 2020 T20 World Cups and the Commonwealth Games gold medal along the way.

Pristine batting conditions and a lightning-fast outfield at Brabourne Stadium laid the foundation for a high-scoring series; England successfully chased a target of 199 against India, and Australia scored 4-209 against England in the final – at the time, the highest-ever total in a women's T20 International.

However, it was swing bowler Megan Schutt who took player-of-the-series honours, defying the conditions to take nine wickets, including her first international hat-trick, at an average of 12 with an economy rate of 6.28.

Following December's trip to India, Australia will host Pakistan in three ODIs and three T20Is before flying to South Africa.

Australia's first game of the T20 World Cup, against New Zealand, takes place on February 11 at Paarl.

Australia's T20I tour of India 

December 9, D.Y. Patil Stadium, Mumbai (Dec 10, 12.30am AEDT) 

December 11, D.Y. Patil Stadium, Mumbai (Dec 12, 12.30am AEDT) 

December 14, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai (Dec 15, 12.30am AEDT) 

December 17, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai (Dec 18, 12.30am AEDT) 

December 20, Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai (Dec 21, 12.30am AEDT)