Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner still believes her team is the best in the world despite losing two back-to-back World Cups in consecutive years.
Twice within the space of a year, Australia have failed to win a major ICC title. At the 2024 T20 World Cup, they lost the semi-final to South Africa. Earlier this year, India handed them a defeat in Navi Mumbai, ending their hopes of defending the ODI World Cup title.
Gardner said Australia have learned important lessons from their recent World Cup losses and are confident of bouncing back even stronger.
“We’ve certainly been put under pressure recently. But I can still sit here confidently saying that we’re the best team in the world,” Gardner told cricket.com.au.
Australia will now host recent World Cup winners India for a full tour that includes three T20Is, three ODIs and a one-off Test match. Gardner knows India will be high on confidence after winning the silverware.
“India’s going to come across with a lot of confidence, as they should,” she said. “They’ve obviously played some really good cricket recently. They challenged us in the ODI series before the World Cup and then had the upper hand in that semi-final.”
Despite that, Gardner believes home conditions will help Australia.
“They’re also coming over to our conditions, which we know better than they do. If they do challenge us, we know what to do in those moments as well. Over the last 12 to 18 months, we’ve only lost about two games, and I think both of those losses came in semi-finals,” she added.
For latest sports updates: Follow RevSportz
