Beth Mooney expects her tenure behind the stumps to continue into Australia’s whirlwind ODI tour of New Zealand next week.

Mooney has been filling in as wicketkeeper in the ongoing CommBank ODI series against India, while captain and regular ‘keeper Alyssa Healy recovers from a knee injury.

Healy will come back into the Australia squad for the three-game tour in Wellington, but with three ODIs to be played in the space of five days, Mooney said she expected to hang onto the gloves for a little longer, with Healy’s fitness for the multi-format Ashes in January a priority.

“I think at this stage, (Healy’s) doing everything she can to make sure she’s right,” Mooney told reporters at the WACA Ground on Tuesday ahead of the third ODI.

“She’ll head over to New Zealand with us (and) she’s been in the nets batting and things like that … I don’t know if she’s done any keeping yet, but I think she’ll get assessed leading into New Zealand.

“But I think at this stage, she’ll just try and get on the field as a batter.

“I haven’t kept in a 50-over game for a couple of years, so it’s been different, but I love it. It’s a great opportunity for me to have a few games with the gloves.”

Opener Georgia Voll, who was originally only named in the squad to play India in place of Healy, was on Tuesday added to the New Zealand touring party following a brilliant start to her international career, which included a century in her second game on Sunday.

Her continued presence will give Australia flexibility around Healy’s return and workloads, and Mooney said it was just reward for how smoothly she had settled into international cricket.

“She’s taken it like a duck to water, ‘Volly’,” Mooney said.

“She’s a bit of a breath of fresh air being a country kid (and) she knows her game pretty well after playing a few years in domestic cricket, so I think that’s really helped her come into international cricket, having a little bit of confidence in her own game, in her own form, moving to the Sydney Thunder and scoring some runs at the top of the order there.

“She’s been really impressive and she’s certainly done everything she can to make sure she keeps her name up in lights with the Australian selectors.

“Us over 30s, we’re getting on a bit aren’t we, so these young kids coming in, just peeling off hundreds left, right and center certainly puts a lot of pressure on the rest of us.”

Australia have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series against India, but Mooney said they were not looking at Wednesday’s final game at the WACA Ground as a dead rubber, with ICC Women’s ODI Championship points on offer.

Australia currently sit on top of the Championship table on 32 points, ahead of England on 30 points and with three games in hand.

But India could leapfrog both teams and take out the silverware for the first time; they sit in third spot on 25 points and have seven games left to play – three more than Australia.

Their remaining series are against West Indies later this month and Ireland in January, and India will be fancied to sweep both series.

That leaves Australia needing to beat India 3-0, and claim a series win over New Zealand later this month – or rely on India either dropping a game or having a washout – if they want to win the Championship for a third consecutive cycle.

“I think we have to take each of these games in isolation, as they’re for Championship points,” Mooney said.

“I’m sure India will come out pretty hard after the first two games.

“It’ll be a tough contest … I know we’ve got a great bowling line-up, one of the best in the world, so we’ll hopefully be able to get as much as we can out of the wicket and wreck some havoc early.

“Every ODI game we play between now and October next year we’ll certainly be looking to make sure we get everything right leading up to that … (ODI) World Cup.”

What is the ICC Women’s Championship?

 The 10-team 2022-24 Championship determines which five sides, alongside hosts India, will gain automatic qualification for the 2025 World Cup.

 

The remaining four will need to head to the ICC’s qualifying tournament to try and win a spot in the eight-team event.

 

The Championship runs across each ODI World Cup cycle and in this edition, each of the 10 teams play eight three-game ODI series – four at home and four away – meeting all bar one of the other Championship sides.

 

With this edition reaching its climax, Australia have already secured qualification for the World Cup with six games remaining, as have England and South Africa.

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: Australia won by five wickets

Second ODI: Australia won by 122 runs

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

Commbank tour of New Zealand

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

First ODI: December 19: Basin Reserve, Wellington, 9am AEDT

Second ODI: December 21: Basin Reserve, Wellington, 9am AEDT

Third ODI: December 23: Basin Reserve, Wellington, 9am AEDT