The Australian cricketer Alyssa Healy believes that Australia will throw the first punch when their Ashes 2025 campaign gets underway in Sydney on Sunday.
Australia are desperate after the tie on home soil and kept their 10-year grip on the Ashes. England don’t get on top early with a win in the first ODI at North Sydney Oval is priority No.1.
“You want to throw the first punch, you want to get out there and take the first two points,” Healy told reporters in Sydney on Saturday. “Then you can hopefully settle in from there.”
The Aussies are still smarting from the 2023 edition in the United Kingdom, When England bounced back from 6-0 defeat and rode a wave of emotion and local support to eventually tie the series 8-8.
The edition will see three ODIs and three T20Is played in the space of 14 days before the day-night test begins at the MCG on January 30.
The Aussies are looking to get the momentum their way early in the series 💪
Read more: https://t.co/K9fhW83SaR#Ashes pic.twitter.com/m4OK3srqJf
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 11, 2025
“It’s just maintaining our composure under pressure,” Healy continued.
“I think we speak a lot about that, and teams wanting to come really hard at us and try to knock us off a perch.
“England are a big emotional team in that regard and if you let them get in front, then they’re really good at staying out in front.
“So for us in particular, we’re hopefully coming in tomorrow, throwing the first punch and saying, ‘Good luck catching us’.
“But if we can just manage our emotions and manage our bodies in particular, I think we’ll go a long way to winning this.”
“They’ll certainly go in as favourites,” Knight said. “Our job, as it was in that ’23 Ashes series, is to try and disrupt and do things a little bit differently to try and break that success and run that they’ve had.
“We’re really confident with where we’re at … that 2023 Ashes series will give us a lot of confidence.
“We know that the Aussies were probably a bit scarred by that, and they’re going to come out really hard. and we’ve got to be prepared for that and have our plans ready to face that and to try and counteract that ourselves.”
The 34 year old missed a chance to lift the T20 World Cup as captain late last year and now has eyed on winning both the Ashes and the ODI World Cup, due to staged in India later this year.
“It wouldn’t bother me if I was captain or not, I’d just like to win both of those things,” she said.
“It’s a big 12 months for our group. Knowing the finish to (the Ashes) last time over in England, I think that left the girls a little bit wanting more and wanting to improve and evolve.
“We’ve seen that with our cricket over the last 12 to 18 months, and probably the World Cup was another opportunity for us to reflect on how we can be better.
“This is a great opportunity for us to showcase that against one of the best teams in the world, and on our home turf as well.” The first match of the ODI leg will begin on January 12 at North Sydney Oval.
