Ellyse Perry has shaken of her ankle injury ahead of theWomen’s World Cup starting soon after the Champions Trophy. She endured an injury-borne season, which included hamstring, elbow and groin complaints.
The Australian women’s squad departs for England on Saturday, and Perry said the team’s Queensland-based preparation over the past five weeks had helped her to get back being fit.
“I had a lovely break and came back really refreshed, the body feels great as well, which is nice,” Perry told cricket.com.au on Thursday. “It’s been nice to have this time up here (in Queensland) uninterrupted to do a bit of training.”
She is much confident about her performance and ready to help Australia defend the title.
“I haven’t played a lot of cricket in the last little bit, but hopefully when I get to England and have some practice matches I’ll have a gauge of how it’s going,” she said. “There are a few things I can introduce, in terms of the shots I play, the selection of shots to balls and where I hit it, and at the same time just being conscious of it as well and learning exactly where and when is the right time to put the foot down and up the scoring rate if I need to.”
She has alway stunned the world with her pace attack and looks forward to making more in UK condition.
“The spinners have led way for the last little bit (but) I think for any side to be successful and to do well in a major competition, you need to have a well-balanced bowling unit with pace and spin,” she said. “It’s really important that the pace bowlers step up and bowl well over in England.”
Australia’s team is much changed from the combination that won in India four years ago, and Perry said much of the team’s planning and training had been based around ensuring the pace contingent, of which the 26-year-old is the spearhead, will be able to perform at the requisite high standard.
“I think of any World Cup team you’ve got to have a really good balance between your spin and pace options, particularly going over to England where the ball swings and seams a bit more as well,” Perry said. “We’ve got a nice balance now, the pace unit probably had a fair bit of work to do over the past couple of months to get up to the standards that our spin unit was setting.The 50-over format being every four years it definitely has an added element of being really special and those experiences in past tournaments always help. We’ve got quite an inexperienced squad with a blend of new faces as well, and I think everyone is really excited about that. In my recollection, it’s going to be the biggest World Cup we’ve ever had in terms of how the game’s grown over the last couple of years.”
Australia’s first match of the World Cup is against the West Indies on June 26 in Taunton.