Alyssa Healy Announces Retirement from Cricket After India Series

Australia's captain, Alyssa Healy, is retiring from international cricket after the upcoming series against India, marking the end of a 15-year career. The 35-year-old wicketkeeper-batter has announced that she'll play her last matches for Australia in three ODIs and a single Test against India in February and March, skipping the T20Is to focus on the longer formats. Healy, a two-time ODI World Cup and six-time T20 World Cup winner, has scored over 7,000 runs across all three international formats with 275 dismissals. She cited losing her competitive edge as the reason for her retirement, stating, "I'm still passionate about playing for Australia, but I've somewhat lost that competitive edge that's kept me driven since the start. "It has forced an announcement of sorts, but it has given me some peace as well because I've known this in the back of my mind for probably six months. But to finally say it and get it out there, would be ideal for everyone to just clap it and move on. "At the end of the day, to have an opportunity to finish at home against India, which is on the calendar one of the biggest series for us. I thought that would be a really cool way to finish with some of my team-mates and some family around as well. It would've been nice to do it in India with a World Cup, but doing it at home will be something special." "I guess when it comes to retirement, it's quite daunting for a lot of people, but standing here right now, I'm really excited for the future come the end of March.