IT all begins on Thursday afternoon.

The Australian Women’s Cricket Team are about to start their final series for the year, which is against India over in the subcontinent.

It has been a few years now since these two met in a series, but that series was in Australia, so the fact this one is in India brings a whole different set of challengers to conquer.

This series will be a multi format one – covering all three formats – but unlike the Ashes format that particularly Australian fans are so used to, there will be three separate points tallies, one for each format portion of the series. This afternoon the one off Test Match begins, before the series moves into the One Dayers and then the T20s.

Australia is certainly bringing plenty of spinners on this tour, but there are still a few speedy options amongst the group. With spin likely to be favoured and with so many all rounder quicks in the group, the question will be whether the likes of Darcie Brown, Lauren Cheatle and Megan Schutt can even get a game. 

It will also be the dawn of a new era for the Australian team though, with new leadership pair Alyssa Healy and Tahlia McGrath will take charge of the team for the first time as permanent captain and vice captain, after holding the positions on an interim basis for the last little while.

Meanwhile India unsurprisingly has some big names that will keep the Aussies nice and busy, both with bat and ball in hand.

The Indians will again be led by experienced bit hitting pair Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana, while the likes of Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh Thakur are tricky bowlers to face. Verma and Sharma in particular will be tricky, with a spin friendly wicket expected.

Test matches in particular are few and far between for both these teams, but both have recent experience, interestingly against the English for both of them. The Australians beat the mother country back in June, while the Indians beat the English just last week.

Although the Indians have the more recent practise in the format, Australia’s team will largely, if not completely, be the exact same as the one that won that Ashes Test back in June.

Fans in Australia can watch this series on Fox Sports and Kayo.

Australian vs India Squads

Australia

Darcie Brown, Lauren Cheatle, Heather Graham, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris (T20Is only), Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

India

Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Shubha Satheesh, Harleen Deol, Saika Ishaque, Renuka Singh Thakur, Titas Sadhu, Meghna Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar

Australian vs India Fixture

December 21-24: Test match – Mumbai

December 28: First ODI – Mumbai

December 30: Second ODI – Mumbai

January 2: Third ODI – Mumbai

January 5: First T20I – Navi Mumbai

January 7: Second T20I – Navi Mumbai

January 9: Third T20I – Navi Mumbai