Australia’s all-rounder Jess Jonassen has claimed England have “psychological scars” which her team will seek to exploit when the women’s Ashes series begins.
Australia’s women, nicknamed the Southern Stars, have not won the Ashes in England since 2001 and are facing their third consecutive series loss. Jonassen, however, believes England may still be haunted by a six-wicket defeat by Australia in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 final 15 months ago.
“You’re always going to be under pressure with a home tour,” said the 22-year-old Queenslander, who is due to fly to the UK with Australia on Monday. “I actually think both sides are going to go in there with confidence. Obviously they will have some belief, with winning the last two series and the fact that it’s on their home soil.
“But for us, with us being world champions and beating them quite convincingly in the T20 World Cup final, I think there’s going to be a few psychological scars for them that I think we can potentially open up.”
Unlike the men’s series the women’s Ashes is decided on a points system that sees four points awarded for a Test victory and two points for wins in ODIs and Twenty20 matches. The system has been in place for only the last two series, in which England won 12-4 at home in 2013 before defending the Ashes with a narrow 10-8 victory in Australia during the 2013-14 summer.
Australia’s coach, Matthew Mott, has selected virtually the same squad which lost the last series in England and Jonassen believes the closeness of that last series will only add to England’s nerves.
“The group that we’ve got at the moment has endured a lot of hardship with the Ashes losses,” she said. “In that last Ashes series we won more games but were behind in the points.
“We sort of played better cricket in a way. But at the same time you’ve got to play consistently and across the board across all three formats and I think that’s something that we probably really lacked in the last two series and I think we can rectify for this time around.”
Although Jonassen has some reservations with the points system, she believes having every match play a role in the Ashes scoreline adds to the increasing spotlight on the women’s game.
That focus is sure to intensify before what may be a Twenty20 Ashes decider in Cardiff when the women and men’s teams play a double-header. “It would always be nice to play a few more Tests,” Jonassen said. “Potentially making it, if it’s not a best of five, a best of three. In the meantime with all three formats… if you see games between the world’s two best teams which are on TV that are highly competitive, then that promotes a really positive brand of cricket to young girls coming through.”
Jonassen has previously played limited-overs Ashes cricket and is hopeful of making her Test debut in the four-day game at Canterbury on 11 August, although she has competition from fellow potential debutants in Nicole Bolton and leg-spinner Kristen Beams.
Playing for the Queensland Fire, Jonassen dominated the first half of the 2014-15 summer, scoring 197 runs at 49.25 and taking 11 wickets at 13.36 in five games. Her efforts were enough to see her named the Women’s National Cricket League Player of the Year, even though she missed the season’s second half after having knee surgery in order to be fit for the Ashes.
Now Jonassen is hoping the hard work will pay off when the Ashes begins with an ODI encounter in Taunton on July 21.
“The first game of the tour, it’s highly anticipated,” she said. “You’ve been putting in all this training for a number of months. To finally come around, I think for that game, it’s probably the one I’m looking forward to the most for it will really set the tone for the rest of the tour.”
Although the Southern Stars feature big names like the captain, Meg Lanning, and the all-rounder Ellyse Perry – who gave up a chance to play for the Matildas in the recent women’s football World Cup in Canada as she focused on the Ashes – Jonassen says Australia’s advantage remains their strength in depth.
“We don’t really need to rely on one or two key players that the opposition will be wary of,” she maintained. “It’s truly tough to get into this team. So hopefully each of the girls keeps performing and their performances keep speaking for themselves.”
