Australia New Coach: Former Australian cricketer Shelley Nitschke has been appointed as Australia women's cricket team's head coach for four years, Cricket Australia confirmed on Tuesday. A former star all-rounder Nitschke joined the Australian team as an assistant coach in 2018 but was given an interim head coach role after Matthew Mott left earlier this year. She was instrumental in the Australian team's Gold medal-winning journey in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
"While I enjoyed my time working as an assistant coach, I feel the time is right to step up and lead this group in what's shaping as a new era with a new-look coaching group and the retirement of Rachael Haynes," the 45-year-old said on ICC website. "The loss of Rach will no doubt be felt, but it presents a great opportunity for others to put their hands up both from a leadership perspective as well as with the bat and in the field," Nitschke added.
Her first assignment would be a T20I tour of India in December before taking on Pakistan at home in January. But the real big test for her would be to defend their title at next year's Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa and the away Ashes series next winter.
"Our challenge is to ensure the team continues to evolve; we've seen teams like India take their game to the next level and it's important that the players feel they have the support they need to keep getting better every day," she said. "Our team continues to go from strength to strength and I’m excited to see what this group can achieve next; there’s some important cricket on the horizon including the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in February and away Ashes next winter, so it’s a great time to be involved," Nitschke added.
A left-arm spin bowling allrounder, who retired in 2011, Nitschke has played more than 100 games for Australia. Overall, she has scored 3118 runs and claimed 153 wickets in 80 ODIs, 36 T20Is and six Tests.
