COMING off a thumping win in Adelaide on Saturday, Beth Mooney and her Australian teammates have all eyes towards the exciting prospect of a pink ball test at the MCG commencing on Thursday.

When asked about the opportunity that presented itself, Mooney spoke about not only what playing test match cricket means individually, but what it means for the group.

“It’s going to be awesome, we obviously don’t get to pull on the baggy green too often, the pink ball behaves a little bit differently, I think that will create some challenges,” she said post-match in Adelaide.

“I’m just really looking forward to the spectacle of the game to be honest, we’re pumped that we are 12 nil up, it certainly would have been nice if we’d played the test match while the series was still on the line, maybe earlier in the series but that wasn’t to be.

“There are a lot of people that I know that are close that are flying down to watch and hopefully be part of something that’s special and with this Australian team, so on an individual front and as a group, it’s come at a great time for us to basically just show off our skill and really enjoy playing the four-day game.”

With the Australian captain Alyssa Healy continuing to be sidelined through injury, Mooney is presented with the opportunity to wicketkeep during the four-day test. She described how she’s prided herself on being up for selection in many facets, something that’s been a help to the coaching and selection committee. 

“It’s been nice to have an extended run at [keeping],” Mooney said. “I think Alyssa’s done a wonderful job behind the stumps for a long period of time now for Australia but I mentioned tonight to a couple of people that I take pride in the fact that I can offer the coaching staff and selection panel different options, whether it’s in the batting order or obviously behind the stumps or in the field.”

“it will be a nice challenge for me wicketkeeping and batting in that middle order so [I’m] looking forward to what that’s going to present and hopefully I’m just warming up the spot for a little while.”

Having won all six previous games, three ODIs and three T20s, Mooney’s side is looking to complete a whitewash of the series against England, with their ‘ruthless nature’ at the forefront of their minds.

“It’s been obviously spoken about a little bit in the last few days, we’ve moved from one game to the next pretty quickly and have had to focus on that so the test is going to offer a different challenge for both teams across the four-day period,” she continued.

“We won’t be wanting to let them back into the series at all, I think the ruthless nature of this group is that we want to compete and really drive it home and obviously England will have a bit to think about in the next few days.

“I’m sure they’ll come out really hard and will want to get a test match win as much as we would as well.”

The last Ashes series that took place over in England ended in a draw, with Australia retaining the bragging rights with both teams scoring eight points in the games tally after Australia won the test match after losing both the ODI and T20 components. 

When asked how that series had affected her side, Mooney was adamant that due to the personnel changes within the group and the recent unsuccessful T20 World Cup campaign, they are not hung up on that result alone.

“There’s probably been a little more played out, obviously within the group since that 2023 Ashes, obviously that T20 World Cup didn’t go to plan and certainly we’ve got the personnel within the squad, not just the group that’s been playing, we’ve got some injured players sitting at home as well,” Mooney said.

“The personnel that we have and that we bring on tour are certainly the best in the country, if not the best players in the world, and we probably had been letting ourselves down a little bit in different areas of the game.

“We really wanted to put a marker out there and keep moving the women’s game forward, there’s no knowing what we can achieve as a group now.

“I think that’s been discussed a lot in the recent months and we’ve always gone back to what’s worked for us, we haven’t really tried to push the boat out too much and I think these last six games, and including the ODIs against India and New Zealand we’ve certainly had discussions about how far we can push the game and get the game changing a little bit for women.”

Heading into the fixture, Mooney is in red-hot form after a match-winning knock in the final T20 of the Ashes series. After hitting 94 runs off just 63 balls in a sublime knock, she admits was still critical of her performance after the match ended, although in hindsight she was happy with her batting.

“I think probably at the halfway mark, I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get more runs off the last few overs for sure,” she said.

“I think after the platform we set and obviously I was still out there as a set batter, I thought I probably let us down a little bit at the back end.

“It’s hard to judge a wicket until both teams have batted on it, I certainly think in hindsight it was a pretty difficult wicket to start on for new batters if you got your length right, and they showed when they got to bowl at a new batter that they bowled pretty well and took some wickets.

“We knew we just had to get the ball in the right areas and get that run rate climbing and we’d be okay but it’s not often that you walk off thinking you haven’t got enough and it turns out to be plenty.”