Not great for Australia, but great for Hurricanes: Carey on Ghosh's form ahead of WBBL07

Richa Ghosh had first made an appearance at the international level in 2020 before the ">T20 World Cup in Australia. She was part of the T20I squad for India then and only received call-up to the ODI and Test team for the tour Down Under. Making her debut in the first ODI, Ghosh smashed an unbeaten 32 off just 29 balls and then made 44 in 50 balls in the second game before bagging a duck in the third.



Ghosh’s style of play has impressed Australia allrounder Nicola Carey, who plays for Hobart Hurricanes, for whom Ghosh has now been signed up to play for in the seventh season of the Women’s Big Bash League.



“When she started teeing off in the second game, I remember thinking, ‘this is not great in terms of the colours that I’m wearing currently’, but also was thinking about it in terms of WBBL and I was pretty happy with that signing,” Carey told select journalists in an online press conference on Monday (September 27).



Carey also had a word of praise for Yastika Bhatia, who scored her maiden ODI fifty on Sunday.



“Yastika yesterday was really good. (She added a) huge partnership with Shafali (Verma), (made a) big score and really went a long way in India winning that game. Those two have been really impressive so far.”



ALSO READ: Richa Ghosh – from prodigy to performer



The 28-year-old allrounder also was impressed at the longevity of Jhulan Goswami and proclaimed her goal to bowl yorkers like the Indian veteran.



“I am very impressed with Jhulan Goswami. I saw yesterday that she has played 192 ODIs for India and look, I knew she’s been around for a while but I don’t know if I played her before,” said Carey.



“She’s extremely impressive and has been good up front with the new ball and taken some key wickets. Then she comes back at the death with her yorkers. I actually walked off the field yesterday, thinking I want to bowl yorkers like Goswami because she was very impressive at the back end. She’s had an amazing career and to still be doing what she is doing is pretty impressing.”



“I still want to bowl yorkers like Goswami, that’s my goal.”







Australia looked on course to notch up their 27^th successive win on the trot in ODIs when they set India a target of 265. The best the tourists had chased in the format till then was 248. However, half centuries from Verma and Bhatia, along with cameos from Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana took India home.



Carey, who bowled the penultimate over with India needing eight, said that she got lucky with the wicket of Rana. She bowled it short, only for the Indian batter to play the pull towards fine leg, where Hannah Darlington took a well-judged catch.



ALSO READ: Should Jhulan Goswami have bowled the last over in the 2nd ODI?



“We didn’t have a lot of runs to play with. The plans were fairly simple at that point – it was bowl full and straight and hope for the best. I got lucky with the wicket and it was definitely not part of the plan.”



“It was a really close game but we couldn’t get over the line. We were pleased to have taken it to the end since India were cruising pretty much before we got back into the game with a few wickets.



Carey didn’t start the ODI series due to an abdominal strain but recovered to take part in the last two matches. Australia had a couple of injury concerns ahead of the pink-ball Test match when Rachael Haynes and Beth Mooney walked off in the third ODI with hamstring niggles. However, Carey brushed off series concerns.



“(The injuries) weren’t overly serious. Just a couple of niggles… (Like the Indians, they) spent two weeks in quarantine, so not overly surprising that there have been soft tissue injuries. That is part and parcel of sitting down for two weeks and then coming back to play.”



Viewers in India can catch all the matches of India’s tour of Australia live on Sony Six and Sony Six HD. The matches will also be live streamed on the Sony Liv website and app.