Australia fast bowler Tayla Vlaeminck ruled out of India ODIs, Test
Australia women's team express pace bowler Tayla Vlaeminck was on Thursday ruled out of the upcoming three-match ODI series and one-off day/night Test against visiting India due to niggles.
The home team's support staff is looking to best manage its battery of young fast bowlers.
Head coach Matthew Mott said Vlaeminck, who did not bowl on Thursday, would be the lone player unavailable for next week's ODIs in Mackay and the ensuing Test in Gold Coast.
He added that she will likely feature in the T20 series.
"Tayla has had some little niggles throughout her build-up down in Victoria," Mott told reporters after his 18-member squad played out a 30-overs per side game in Brisbane.
"That's something that we've been monitoring all the way through.
"And she does have to step up her loads gradually. We've got to manage her really well – we've got a huge 18 months for her as a young fast bowler, and we know the impact that she can have when she plays."
Vlaeminck, who played the first of her 20 matches for Australia as a 19-year-old in 2018, has for some time been considered among the world's fastest bowlers, though knee and shoulder problems as well as a stress fracture in her right foot have stalled her progress.
With the 22-year-old speedster still working her way back to full fitness ahead of the T20s, Australia will be without their first-choice new ball pairing for the three ODIs and one-off Test as veteran seamer Megan Schutt is also unavailable following the birth of her first child.
With experienced spinner Jess Jonassen also missing out owing to an injury, Mott is expecting star all-rounder Ellyse Perry to take on a leadership role in the young bowling group.
"(Perry has) obviously had a very long recovery now and (this series is) something she's planned a lot for," he said.
"Speaking to (bowling coach) Ben Sawyer, who has worked a lot with her at the Sixers, he's really happy with where she's at.
"At the crease he can't remember her being as strong as she has been, and certainly in the hits that we've had up here (we've seen that).
"She had a pretty good bowl today, she got a little bit of tap early, but then came back and got a wicket, got Meg out and bowled really well.
The tour begins with the opening ODI at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay on September 21 and concludes with third and final T20I at the Metricon Stadium in Gold Coast on October 10.
One of the young bowlers wearing the Baggy Green for the first time could be Darcie Brown, an 18-year-old tearaway from Kapunda in South Australia who burst onto the scene in last summer's WBBL before going on to make her ODI and T20I debuts in New Zealand in March-April.
In Vlaeminck's absence, Mott said Brown could well make her debut in the one-off Test and be deployed as an impact bowler.
"What we have found in our stats for the last few Tests is that spinners bowl a lot of the overs, so having some like Darcie to come in for short spells is probably how she's going to be used anyway," he said.
"I think our quicks will probably be used a lot more for impact than the grunt work in the middle overs."
