Rivalry is on again with India

ALYSSA Healy has stoked the embers ahead of Australia’s series against India, saying there is an “unspoken rivalry” between the two nations.

The rivalry goes back at least to 2017 when India knocked Australia out of the World Cup in the semi-finals. Their total of 4-281 proved too much, with Australia losing by 36.

Meg Lanning’s side went back to the drawing board, culminating in last year’s incredible T20 World Cup final in front of f a record 86,174 crowd before the world shut down due to Covid.

For the first time Down Under, the two nations will play a multi-format series that sees every match across the three formats of the game count towards the winner.

Last year’s final – the last time the two met in cricket – has set the tone for a spicy series, which starts with the first of three one-day internationals on September 21 in Mackay and is followed by a historic Test and a further three T20s.

“We’ve got this bubbling of competitiveness and a little bit of a rivalry going,” Healy (pictured) said of India. “It’s sort of unspoken, but it’s definitely there.”