Matthew Mott believes that India series “an extraordinary opportunity” for young fast bowlers

Australia head coach Matthew Mott believes the next generation of Australian players, especially young fast bowlers have “an extraordinary opportunity” to shine in the upcoming series against India starting on September 19. Meg Lanning’s team will face India in three ODIs, one Test and three T20Is, for which the squad was announced on August 18.



Australia will play their first international series since April 2021, but they will be without the top two ranked ODI bowlers in Jess Jonassen and Megan Schutt. Schutt's absence will give an opportunity to a relatively inexperienced pace attack which includes Tayla Vlaeminck, Darcie Brown, Maitlan Brown, Annabel Sutherland and the 19-year-old Stella Campbell.



"We won't have any excuses, we've lost some key players but the flip side of that is an extraordinary opportunity for us to see the next generation, especially in the young fast bowlers," Mott said while speaking on SEN radio. “We have got a number of quicks there as they are doing well in Big Bash and WNCL. Maitlan Brown has moved back to NSW and trained the house down.”



Australia, who are currently on the 24-game winning streak in ODIs, last played against New Zealand in April 2021. They have managed to play 11 international matches since the T20 World Cup final.



For Mott, the team needs to build momentum ahead of the 2022 ODI World Cup in New Zealand. "We need to play some cricket, we haven't played a lot of cricket basically since that World Cup at the MCG. It's really important to try and rebuild some of that momentum we had,” Mott stressed.



"I can tell you I'm sick to death of sitting at my computer just planning and re-planning … it has its place but we love coaching and love getting amongst it and getting on the tools. Myself and (assistant coach) Shelley Nitschke have had to run a program from up here remotely. We are absolutely frothing to get back throwing balls and talking to players about cricket."



The recent Covid-19 outbreaks and domestic border closures in Australia has lead to a lack of clarity over the lead-up to this series. Mott hopes his side will get an opportunity to have a pre-series camp ahead of the series against India, who have already played a multi-format series against England, and five players from that Indian squad have played in The Hundred as well.



"I heard a great quote recently, that we almost need to make adversity our friend at the moment. Not getting caught up in too much planning, what we've got to do is back that we've been a pretty successful team over a long period of time. Playing against India is going to be a real test because we know their top order will come hard at a relatively inexperienced attack,” he concluded.