Aussie quick suffers injury setback ahead of Cup

Australia speedster Tayla Vlaeminck has suffered an injury scare ahead of the T20 World Cup, with a knee strain to rule her out of Victoria’s upcoming 50-over Women’s National Cricket League matches.

Vlaeminck, who has a torrid history of knee injuries, suffered an ACL strain to her left while training with Victoria before Christmas.

But in good news for the 21-year-old, the strain is only expected to keep her on the sidelines for 2-3 weeks.

It means she will miss Victoria’s upcoming matches against Western Australia at Junction Oval on January 7 and 9, but Australia are not in action until late January, for a T20I tri-series against India and England – a contest set to serve as preparation for the ICC tournament on home soil beginning February 21.

"Tayla sustained a mild ACL strain while bowling at training prior to Christmas," a CV spokesperson told cricket.com.au.

"Following advice from team medical staff, Tayla is expected to miss two to three weeks and will be unavailable for the upcoming WNCL fixtures for Victoria."

Vlaeminck, regarded as the Australian team’s fastest bowler as well as one of the world’s quickest, has been a mainstay of the national squad since making her debut in late 2018.

That debut came after a horror four-year period for the Bendigo product, who underwent two reconstructions to her right knee and recovered from a dislocated shoulder.

A further setback saw the right-armer miss half of the Rebel WBBL|04 season and an ODI series against New Zealand in early 2019 after partially tearing her ACL - this time in her left knee - before recovering to make her Test debut against England in Taunton last July.

Vlaeminck’s speed is seen as a point of difference in the Australian squad, and there is little doubt the national brains trust will be tracking her recovery carefully.

Australia’s squad for the T20 World Cup, where Meg Lanning’s squad will defend their 2018 title on home soil, is set to be announced this month.

Another player under an injury cloud, superstar allrounder Ellyse Perry, looks set to make her return when Victoria meet Western Australia.

Perry missed the final five matches of the Sydney Sixers’ Rebel WBBL season after suffering a low-grade AC joint injury to her dominant right shoulder in a fielding mishap.

"It’s going pretty well," Perry said of her shoulder on SEN radio late last month.

"It should hopefully be fully fit by the time we have our next lot of games early in the new year with 50-over domestic cricket.

"(It was) good and bad timing … bad timing coming right at end of the WBBL but it’s good that I’ve had a couple of weeks to get it totally right."