Australia coach walking a tightrope between twin goals of peaking for the Ashes in January and direct qualification for next World Cup

Australia coach Shelley Nitschke says “not cooking players for the Ashes” will be vital across the next three weeks, which will see her team play six ODIs in 19 days across two countries.

The six one-dayers against India and New Zealand, which will see Australia travel from Brisbane to Perth then on to Wellington before turning home on Christmas Eve, continue a busy period that started in mid-September when the Aussies congregated in Mackay for a T20 series against New Zealand.

Since then, the Aussies have contested the T20 World Cup and returned home for WBBL|10, which concluded in a maiden title for the Melbourne Renegades on Sunday.

There have been brief breaks at home in between, particular for those whose teams did not make the WBBL finals, but Australia nonetheless will head into Thursday’s first ODI in Brisbane managing various niggles.

Captain Alyssa Healy is sitting out the games against India as she manages the knee injury that ended her WBBL season early, while Alana King fractured her right pinkie finger in the Scorcher’s final game.

Darcie Brown and Sophie Molineux both missed patches of the WBBL due to hip and knee injuries respectively but have been named in the squad to play India.

Making sure players are fit and firing when the multi-format Ashes get underway in Sydney on January 12 is paramount, Nitschke told cricket.com.au on Tuesday.

“That’s something we’ll monitor from game to game,” Nitschke said when asked if rotating the XI would be necessary through the two series.

“We’ve got plenty of options, so we’ll just have to see where each game ends up, and how everyone’s travelling.

“Looking forward, making sure that we’re not cooking anyone for the Ashes as well, so there’s a bigger picture in mind as well.

“That’s something we definitely monitor closely through the next six games.”

The back-to-back three-game ODI series against India at home and New Zealand away form Australia’s final two legs of the ICC Women’s ODI Championship, the quadrennial round-robin tournament between the world’s top 10 teams.

It determines which sides automatically qualify for next year’s World Cup in India and which teams have to go through the qualification tournament, and all Championship matches have to be played by the end of January.

“It’s a tight schedule,” Nitschke said of Australia’s run from September through to the Ashes Test at the MCG starting January 30.

“It’s a tight turnaround, especially if you go pretty deep in the WBBL so that’s something that we need to keep an eye on as we move through sort of these next six games in particular.”

Healy’s ailment has created an opportunity for Queensland opener Georgia Voll in the squad to play India, and she is expected to be named at the top of the order alongside fellow 21-year-old Phoebe Litchfield in Thursday’s first ODI.

As it stands, Healy hopes to return for the New Zealand leg, which will see the trans-Tasman rivals play three games in five days, but the games against India are a chance for Voll to show what she can do in the green and gold.

“It’s fantastic to have Volly in the squad,” Nitschke said. “We had our first session today, she fitted in well and I think she’s enjoying being around the group and it’s exciting for us to have a new player in the mix.

“(Voll and Litchfield) are both really good stroke players, they like to get on with it.

“They know each other well. They’ve played a lot together just at the Thunder so they’ve got a really good rapport already, so if (opening together) happens, I think it’s going to be really exciting for us.”

Commbank Women’s ODI series v India

Australia squad: Tahlia McGrath (c), Ashleigh Gardner (vc), Darcie Brown, Kim Garth, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Uma Chetry, Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh (wk), Tejal Hasabnis, Minnu Mani, Priya Mishra, Priya Punia, Arundhati Reddy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Titas Sadhu, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh Thakur, Saima Thakor, Radha Yadav

First ODI: December 5: Allan Border Field, Brisbane, 3.20pm AEDT

Second ODI: December 8: Allan Border Field, Brisbane, 10.45am AEDT

Third ODI: December 11: WACA Ground, Perth, 3.20pm AEDT