Injury Sidelines Sophie Molineux From India Series! West Indies Tour Under Threat

Sophie Molineux ruled out of India series [Source: Rcb_Xtra/X.com]

Just days after making her Australia captaincy debut, Sophie Molineux faces a setback in the middle of India’s all-format tour of Australia. The skipper has been ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing series against India and remains in serious doubt for the upcoming tour of the Caribbean.

After leading the side in the lost T20I series against the Indians, Molineux was supposed to take charge of the Aussies across formats against the West Indies to replace the departing Alyssa Healy.

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Sophie Molineux ruled out of India series with back issues

On Friday afternoon, as Australia took on India for the second ODI of the three-match series at the Ninja Stadium in Hobart, the unfortunate news struck the Australian fans as Sophie Molineux did not take the field.

Having suffered multiple injuries throughout her career, it is the back soreness that is set to sideline her from the remainder of the ODI series and the one-off Test against India.

National selector Shawn Flegler also revealed that the 28-year-old could also miss the upcoming tour of the West Indies in mid-March; however, didn’t explicitly rule her out of the tour as of now.

“Sophie Molineux's developed a bit of lower back pain over the last few days. So unfortunately, that means she's going to miss the rest of the series and we'll look towards her being available for the West Indies series coming up. So we don't want to take any risks with the T20 World Cup coming up,” he told Channel 7.

“She's still right to bat, still right to run, but it's just the bowling that she's got a little bit of pain at the moment … we'll get her scanned and then we'll have to offload her for a little while and that's why we don't want to take any chances with the next few matches coming up,” he added.

Gardner or McGrath likely to lead Australia in West Indies

After being ignored for the captaincy role, despite being a frontrunner to be Alyssa Healy’s successor, Ashleigh Gardner, could take charge of the team when they travel to the Caribbean. The off-spin bowling all-rounder is one of the mainstays of this team across formats, making her the likely choice to take the role in Molineux’s absence.

Joint vice-captain in ODIs, Tahlia McGrath is another name doing circles to take up the role; however, uncertainty with her place in the T20I XI could see Gardner getting a nod against West Indies. She has previously led them in 9 T20Ism winning 8 and 6 ODIs, winning all of them.

Australia look to bounce back from T20I disappointment against India

As teams prepare for the upcoming ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in June, the Aussies got off to a lacklustre start to their preparations after the semi-final loss in the recent ODI World Cup. For the first time since 2015/16, they lost the T20I series to India at home by a margin of 2-1.

In the ODIs, they started the series well with an emphatic 6-wicket win in the series opener in Brisbane and look well-positioned to clinch the second ODI as India’s first innings score reads 182/6 in 41 overs.

Left-arm orthodox bowler, Sophie Molineux, who won’t play any further part in the series, played 3 T20Is and picked 4 wickets against India and backed it up by 1/17 in the first ODI. Considering her injury history, it will be interesting to see how CA deals with the situation ahead of the T20 World Cup.

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