Deitz’s message to West Indies: play with freedom and have enjoyable
There will likely be an Australian affect on West Indies as they goal to topple the world champions on their house soil over the subsequent two weeks with Shane Deitz taking cost for his first sequence as the brand new head coach.
Deitz, the previous South Australia wicketkeeper-batter who has beforehand coached the Bangladesh and Netherlands ladies’s sides, took up his position final month however this tour has been the primary probability for him to get the squad collectively.
Although Australia stumbled within the Ashes, shedding each white-ball sequence to retain the urn with an total draw, they may begin robust favourites towards West Indies, for whom it is a first bilateral tour of the nation since 2014. They have won their last five T20Is, following a run of 15 consecutive defeats, however the finish of the shedding streak got here too late to avoid wasting their T20 World Cup marketing campaign in South Africa.
Deitz has a easy message for them forward of the opening T20I in Sydney: play with freedom and have enjoyable.
“Got out there and enjoy it. Enjoy the challenge and play with freedom,” Deitz informed ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve got nothing to lose. Australia is the world’s best team for a long time now. We’ve got to find an identity for how we want to play. Using that natural ability and talent and letting that flow is the way I’m looking to do it. Play with a smile on your face, have fun.”
It’s a philosophy that captain Hayley Matthews, who will be a part of Melbourne Renegades for the WBBL after this tour, is totally onboard with because the pair look to construct in the direction of subsequent yr’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
“We are definitely up for the challenge,” she mentioned. “At the end of the day if we are going to compete with the best teams in the world that’s the brand of cricket we are going to have to play. Teams are now scoring 160-170 runs in T20 games and don’t reckon anyone’s going to score or win games by just nudging it around.
“Not solely the youthful gamers, however everybody inside the workforce has to have freedom to go on the market and push their boundaries, push their limits and that is what we’re encouraging.”
Matthews, who’s averaging 43.33 with the bat 15.78 with the ball in T20Is this year, having been West Indies’ main run-scorer and wicket-taker on the 2022 ODI World Cup, will likely be pivotal to what they need to obtain. She comes into the tour after a player-of-the-match efficiency in the WCPL final.
“Her performances during the last 12 months or longer have been unbelievable,” Deitz said. “She’s the most effective on this planet, for positive. I’ve been so impressed together with her management and captaincy inside the group. It’s wonderful for her age to be such an important chief. We are having fun with our time working collectively, we predict alongside the identical traces. Think the workforce’s in good palms together with her.”
Matthews added: “He’s gelled very well with the group and tried to get into the tradition of the women a bit of bit. At the identical he is spoken quite a bit about us progressing in the appropriate route and getting the kids to a sure commonplace and changing into a extra constant workforce.”
“There’s undoubtedly quite a lot of youth coming by means of, [it’s about] harnessing that expertise and placing in a world-class high-performance programme round them to supply worldwide commonplace gamers,” Deitz said. “There’s undoubtedly tons to work with. We need to win each sport, however it’s a must to have a longer-term imaginative and prescient to develop gamers and permit them to make errors alongside the way in which.
“We want to find a nucleus of players for that [T20] World Cup, it’s a year away now, we are definitely building towards that, so we have to work with the players to get them ready.”
Australia captain Alyssa Healy, who is continuous within the position within the absence of Meg Lanning and performs her 250th worldwide on Sunday, is cautious of West Indies’ risk.
“I think they are a really damaging side,” she mentioned. “Maybe the results over the last 12 months don’t quite represent the side they are and how much damage they can do. They’ve got two of the best players in the world at the top of the order and some really damaging new-ball options as well. If Hayley Matthews gets going at North Sydney Oval it will be really hard to stop.
“We aren’t taking them frivolously in any respect, do not assume you possibly can take any workforce in world cricket frivolously in the intervening time, everybody is thrashing everybody which is nice for our sport, so we’ll need to put our greatest foot ahead.”
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo