St. Kitts, March 27 (NationPress) Australia’s seam-bowling all-rounder Nicola Carey is determined to secure a spot in the roster for the 2026 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, set to occur in England from June 12 to July 5. This ambition comes on the heels of her return to the national team during the current tour of the West Indies.

Nicola has been instrumental in Australia’s victories at both the 2020 T20 World Cup and the 2022 ODI World Cup. However, she declined a contract from Cricket Australia due to limited playing opportunities. After a three-year hiatus, she was invited back to the squad during the recent home series against India and has since been included in the Caribbean tour.

“I obviously haven't been here for a while, but coming back in, there's a lot of familiar faces, which is always nice. When you’re out of it, you sit back and think, I don’t know how they do it, not being at home that often. But when you’re in it, you just do it. It’s quite fun being around the group,” Nicola shared with ICC recently.

With the T20 World Cup approaching, Nicola expressed that participating in this prestigious event is a significant source of motivation. “It’s a massive tournament. Everyone here would want to be a part of that. That’s the carrot dangling at the end of this. Everyone’s trying to put their best foot forward. I’m sure we’ll find out soon,” she commented.

Australia secured a 3-0 victory in the T20I series and now shifts focus to the ODIs against the West Indies, marking their final preparations before the upcoming T20 World Cup. The absence of Annabel Sutherland, who has been rested to manage her workload, has created opportunities for players like Nicola.

“Belsey is massive for this team and when you take her out, that sort of leaves a couple of gaps, both batting and bowling. There’s that many all-rounders floating around, so I guess that’s opportunities for different people to step up,” she noted.

“It's been nice to sort of try different things and open the bowling. You haven't done a lot of that even back home, so it's been cool to experience different things within this team,” Nicola added.

Reflecting on the team's transition from T20Is to ODIs, Nicola concluded by stating that Australia’s strategies are falling into place. “It’s nice to change up the location here in St Kitts, obviously coming off the back of those three T20Is. There’s a fair bit we can take out of that. We had a lot of discussion around how we wanted to go about it. I think we saw that come to fruition, which was really pleasing to see,” she remarked.