Australian women – Alyssa Healy on the future of Jess Jonassen and watch Tayla Vlaeminck and Darcie Brown together

Despite having 105 T20Is to his name, the writing was on the wall for Jonassen when he was left out of the squad to tour Bangladesh earlier this year and it was always going to be difficult to find his way back into a strong squad including Georgia Wareham, Sophie Molineux, Alana King and Ash Gardner .

The only previous occasion where Jonassen missed the World Cup was the 2013 ODI edition when he was ruled out due to injury after being selected.

Molineux’s return to fitness after a couple of injury-hit seasons, and the selectors’ preference to have two legspinners in the squad, played a major role in Jonassen’s release. He lost his place in last summer’s T20I squad after being heavily penalized by Hayley Matthews at North Sydney Oval and has not played an ODI since last July in Ireland.

“I’m disappointed for Jono too. I’ve played a lot of cricket with him over the years and I know exactly what he can contribute to the Australian team in big tournaments and how good he can be. I still see a big future for him. In the Aussie side, there’s always a niggle or something around it. [during] summer, and he’ll be around this summer no doubt.”

Jonassen’s absence is another part of a subtle change in the Australian team over the past few years that saw the retirements of Rachael Haynes and Meg Lanning, although Healy, Gardner, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry and Megan Schutt is still there.

“We’ve seen a little bit of a change,” Healy said. “You look even in the last 12-18 months, the turnover we’ve had, we’ve lost over 700 games of experience. It has to come at some point, [but] luckily there are still a few of our old birds still floating around that we can hope can give us some wisdom on how to win tournaments. Think that the youth in our team are really exciting and I hope that we can help guide them or lead them in the right direction because we think that the youth in our team will win this World Cup for us.”

Even if it doesn’t happen in the next few months, it’s an attractive opportunity for the Ashes, which will take place in January.

“I’d like to see it,” Healy said of the pair playing together. “We’ve been blessed with so many all-rounders that I think we can play a little bit with our fast bowling attack. Think having those two in our side is a big difference, especially in our bowling. [the] situations we’re likely to find, having real speed on your side is a real advantage.

“We will have to wait and see what the conditions are in the team but it is very exciting for the future that these two are in the team together and hopefully we can get them firing at the same time.”