Australia will play five T20 Internationals against India in December, their first of two series ahead of the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa next February

Australia will ramp up their preparations for their T20 World Cup title defense next month with the schedule for their five-match T20 tour of India locked in overnight.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed the venues and dates for the series, which will see all five matches played in Mumbai with D.Y. Patil Stadium hosting the first two fixtures on December 9 and 11 and the Brabourne Stadium the remaining three on December 14, 17 and 20.

It will be Australia’s first games since winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August, and one of two T20 series they will play ahead of the 2023 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa next February, where they will be vying for a third consecutive title
Playing India will be an ideal test for an Australian side undergoing a period of transformation; they will have a new vice-captain in Alyssa Healy for the tour, and if Meg Lanning does not return from her current break from the game, the wicketkeeper-batter is set to stand in as skipper.

Australia will also need to switch up an XI that went unchanged through their undefeated Commonwealth Games campaign, filling the spot vacated by the retired Rachael Haynes, and potentially Lanning.
India has proved Australia’s closest rival in the format in recent years, winning the opening match of the 2020 World Cup in Sydney, and pushing the No.1 ranked Australians during the 2021 series on the Gold Coast, and on both occasions, they met during the Commonwealth Games.

They will be the first-ever Australian women’s team to play at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in western Mumbai, but key members of the squad do have previous experience at Brabourne Stadium, which hosted a T20I tri-series also featuring India and England in March 2018.

Australia were triumphant on that occasion, winning both matches against India and splitting honours against England during the round-robin phase, before defeating Heather Knight’s team in the final.

That series, which was part of Australia’s last tour of the subcontinent nation where they also whitewashed the hosts 3-0 in ODI matches prior to the T20s, flew largely under the radar with the eyes of the cricketing world on the controversy that was playing out concurrently in Cape Town with the men’s national team.