Defending champs Australia confident ahead of ICC Women's World Cup 2025

Most members of the current Australian squad are well-acquainted with Indian conditions, thanks to regular bilateral series and the advent of the Women's Premier League (WPL), as per the ICC website.

Despite this familiarity, Australia have played international cricket in Visakhapatnam way back in 2012, and have never played in Indore - the two Indian venues where they will feature during the World Cup group stages.

However, Australia's vice-captain, Tahlia McGrath, is confident that the Aussies have the depth and strength in their squad to tackle any challenges, regardless of the conditions.

"We have been quite lucky, we feel like we're travelling to India every second month, almost. Spent a lot of time over here, played in these conditions a lot, but we're playing in some parts that we're not very familiar with," vice-captain Tahlia McGrath said ahead of Australia's three-match ODI series against India.

"No matter where you are in India, you can get thrown up very different conditions from day to day, so excited about the challenge, [we have] a little bit of experience, but a little bit of unknowns," she added.

Australia announced their squad on Thursday, 4 September, with few surprises in either inclusions or exclusions. Alyssa Healy, who has battled injuries over the past year, returns to lead the defending champions, supported by experienced campaigners like Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Ash Gardner and McGrath.

"We've been pretty settled with our squad for quite a while now, so we've been pretty lucky with that," McGrath said about the unit. We've got so much talent, so much depth over here that it doesn't really matter what team we throw out or what batting order, all that sort of thing, we're in pretty good hands."

While Australia don't need extra motivation, having already dominated the Women's World Cup with seven titles, the defending champions will be driven by the chance to win back-to-back trophies.

Such a feat hasn't been achieved in the Women's 50-over World Cup since Australia itself completed a three-peat in 1978, 1982, and 1988.

"An ODI World Cup is special; they're probably the pinnacle. And then the extra little bit of motivation as well that we want to be the first team in a while to go back-to-back [in the] ODI World Cup," McGrath concluded.

Australia's title defence will kick off against their Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in the second match of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 on 1 October. (ANI)