In what could potentially be a big blow for Australia, wicketkeeper-bat Alyssa Healy could miss the semi-finals of the ICC Women’s World T20 on Thursday. The teams is waiting on her fitness report after she suffered a mild concussion during her team’s 48-run loss to India on Saturday.
Healy, the tournament’s highest run-getter, didn’t come in to bat in Australia’s chase after a collision with teammate Megan Schutt in the 19th over of India’s innings.
Healy and Schutt, the bowler, collided with each other as they attempted to take the catch of Arundhati Reddy. Healy’s face was knocked into Schutt’s shoulder and she immediately fell to the ground in pain.
After a brief medical check, Healy was walked off the field and appeared disoriented as she was leaving. Beth Mooney, her opening partner, took over the gloves, while Elyse Villani opened the innings.
Captain Meg Lanning hopes her best batter in the Caribbean will be fit and said that they were monitoring her closely.
“She’s got a mild concussion,” Lanning said in the post-match conference. “So obviously we’ll treat that carefully and monitor that over the next few days. But hopefully she’s all right for us come semi-finals time.
“I haven’t spoken to the doctor or anything like that. Obviously we’re just worried for her welfare. But she’s just got a mild concussion. So hopefully she comes up.”
The Southern Stars missed the presence of Healy against India, who was the Player of the Match in their last three games with two half-centuries and a 48.
“We do have seven or eight openers in our team, so that sort of didn’t bother us too much,” Lanning said. “I guess we’ve got people who have done that route before. She’s been in great form. So it was a loss, I guess.
“But we’ve got to be able to adapt to situations like that. I don’t think it had an impact on how we played. We were able to adjust to that, but we just weren’t able to get going with the bat, unfortunately.”