Aussies weigh up four spinners as Healy on track for India Test

Australia will weigh up playing all four spinners in this week’s drought-breaking one-off Test against India in Mumbai.

Captain Alyssa Healy is on track to lead Australia in her first game as full-time national skipper, as she continues her return from a severe finger injury.

Selectors, meanwhile, face a tough call on the balance of their XI for the one-off game at Wankhede Stadium starting Thursday.

The tourists are expecting to encounter a spin-friendly pitch, after watching India thrash England by a record 347-runs in their Test at nearby DY Patil Stadium last week.

Australia have four spinners at their disposal, and after India’s Deepti Sharma wreaked havoc taking nine wickets against England, fellow off-spinner Ashleigh Gardner looks set to play an enormous role for the tourists.

Gardner took a record 12 wickets to lead Australia to victory against England in Nottingham in June.

Leg-spinners Alana King and Georgia Wareham, plus left-arm orthodox spinner Jess Jonassen, are also part of the touring party.

In Australia’s favour is the fact they have three pace-bowling allrounders batting in their top six in Annabel Sutherland, Tahlia McGrath and Ellyse Perry.

That could allow them to play all four spinners, with Darcie Brown as the sole frontline quick.

But if Australia go with just three spinners – Gardner, King and one of Wareham or Jonassen – the door could open for left-arm quick Lauren Cheatle to make a Test debut.

Cheatle impressed with the new ball in Australia’s one-day red-ball practice match on Sunday, taking 4-19.

"We've certainly got a lot of options," Australia coach Shelley Nitschke said from Mumbai on Monday.

"We've got a number of allrounders and I think the squad that we've got here to select from gives us plenty of options.

"We're not really clear on where that's going to land at the moment but we certainly have some decisions to make."

Playing both Wareham and Jonassen – who has a Test match 99 to her name – would have the added benefit of lengthening Australia’s batting line-up, given England’s struggles at DY Patil, which saw them rolled for 136 and 131, and the expectation the pitch will deteriorate after day one.

Australia have not played a Test in India since 1984 and their only prior experience in the country has come via batting friendly white-ball tracks.

Meanwhile four of the five Tests they have played since 2017, at home and in England, have ended in draws.

Wet weather played a role in those outcomes, but flat, lifeless wickets that failed to deteriorate were also a significant contributing factor in several of those matches.

Nitschke said her team was looking forward to the challenge of a Test in true subcontinent conditions.

"It's our challenge to be able to adapt and some of the conditions that we might get are going to be slightly different to what we've experienced in Australia … that's the beauty of Test cricket and playing in India," Nitschke said.

"It’s really exciting. Everyone's just embracing the challenge.

"We're just doing whatever we can to prepare, making sure we're really clear on our plans as we come into the Test match and we back our skills and our adaptability.

"It's just a matter of adapting on the run as well and not getting too far ahead of ourselves ... just making sure that when it does start to change, if it does change, that we're well planned for that and we can read it pretty well."

Healy hit a fifty batting at No.5 in the warm-up against a Mumbai XI, but Beth Mooney took on wicketkeeping duties.

Mooney told cricket.com.au after the game that it was a cautionary measure aimed at protecting Healy, who has been keeping to the spinners in the nets at training but not the quicks, in the lead-up to Thursday.

Nitschke confirmed Healy was on track barring any unexpected setbacks.

"Everything's looking really positive for 'Midge' (Healy) and everything's on track, as we expected, so fingers crossed for her it continues to go that way," she said.

"All things being equal, we'll see her out there, unless there's some significant change."

The Australians had a rest day on Monday, and will have two further training sessions at Wankhede leading into the Test as selectors mull the final XI.

Australia's multi-format tour of India

December 21-24: Test match, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

December 28: First ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

December 30: Second ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

January 2: Third ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

January 5: First T20I, DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

January 7: Second T20I, DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

January 9: Third T20I, DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Lauren Cheatle (Test only), Heather Graham, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris (T20s only), Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Shubha Satheesh, Harleen Deol, Saika Ishaque, Renuka Singh Thakur, Titas Sadhu, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar