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Tahlia McGrath, an Australian all-rounder, should be
in India. After Alyssa Healy was sidelined due to injury in the final game of
the trip, she captained Australia for the first time in an international match
while serving as the temporary vice captain for the women’s T20I series in
Mumbai last year. Following Australia’s gold medal victory at the Commonwealth
Games, Meg Lanning resigned from her position for personal reasons, and the two
were appointed to the positions on an interim basis.
After a full year, McGrath is back in India, this time
with the reins of leadership securely in place. After Lanning’s retirement from
international cricket earlier this year, Healy and McGrath are leading
Australia for the first time as full-time captains and vice-captains of the
multi-format series, which begins with a one-off Test at the Wankhede Stadium
on Thursday. This year, she further cemented her link to India when she was
acquired by UP Warriorz for INR 1.4crore at the first WPL auction, surpassing
Healy’s winnings of INR 70 lakh.
In 2020, The Leadership Playground, an initiative by
former Australia captain Belinda Clark, and the Australian Cricketers
Association collaborated to launch a leadership trial programme by Cricket
Australia. The goal was to develop and coach a few female leaders within the
Australian cricket team. Despite her sparse Australian appearances earlier in
her career, McGrath was regarded as a natural leader and was one of the elite
few chosen for the programme.
“If you had asked me a few years ago, if I had
leadership in my radar, it was not even close,” McGrath said on Tuesday
after training. “I was the shy, quiet one that didn’t really have too much
to say. A few coaches saw some qualities in myself that I perhaps didn’t. From
there I got a few opportunities to lead sides.
“I was really lucky to have a mentor programme
with Belinda Clark and got so much out of that. How my leadership has come
along in the last two year is rapid progression.”
“What I offer as a leader is a really calm
person,” she said. “No matter what the situation is I keep a pretty
calm head and a pretty good read of the game. I am a relationships person –
getting around and connecting with different people in the group and making
sure everyone’s connected and making sure we are all tracking alright.
“My biggest thing at the moment is helping out
Midge [Healy] wherever I can, because being captain of an international side is
a massive role. Her being wicketkeeper I’ll probably help the bowlers out a
fair bit just to save a bit of time. It is about throwing some ideas wherever I
can and keeping the team up when we are potentially in the field for a bit. For
me, it is just trying to take some of the pressure off her and be a sounding
board and throw some ideas at her.”