Last Updated on 9 months ago by Charbel Coorey
After suffering a severe hamstring injury, Ellyse Perry is looking forward to some action in Australia’s opening T20I against New Zealand later this month. The right-arm fast bowler and batswoman was taking required treatment amid the Covid-19-infused lockdown in Melbourne for the past five weeks and this puts a lot of questions on how she will be able to cope with the challenges that intense fielding would require in International cricket.
Due to the rise in Covid-19 cases in Melbourne and Victoria, the city is under stage four lockdown until mid-September. Perry is currently going through two weeks of quarantine in Brisbane ahead of the series. “My preference is to play as an allrounder, that’s who I am and it has always been my role. I don’t want to upset the dynamics of the group if I can help it because it gives us different options when I’m playing as an allrounder, but that’s a call we’ll make in the next couple of weeks”, she said as per the reports of ESPNCricinfo.
The player who has been out of the scene since the T20 World Cup wants to be at the top of her game when she returns. “If I’m playing I want to be fully fit and able to play in the way I always play. It’s probably more about managing the frequency of matches I play, the schedule because of considerations around Covid is quite condensed so it might not be possible or sensible to play all those games but hopefully, I can play some of them”, she said.
The Australian cricket management has launched it’s new female participation strategy on Tuesday, considering their T20 World Cup. Though there are concerns that the Covid-19 outbreak might impact the growth of women’s cricket, Perry has high hopes on the New Zealand tour and WBBL.
“While it’s been a really tricky time for every sports organization I don’t think that’s meant we’ve taken a back seat in any sense, in fact, some of the work CA and Australian Cricketers’ Association have done around female involvement and development shows it’s very much a priority”, Ellyse Perry added.
Also read: WBBL to kick off on October 25 – to be played in one city
Written by Anjali Jha. Follow Anjali on Twitter today.
