Sydney, Oct 17 Australia women coach Shelley Nitschke has called the team's preparations for the inaugural Champions Trophy tricky, with a handful of opportunities available in the build-up to the T20 tournament.

The Aussie women will be playing in a three-match T20I series against New Zealand women at home, starting Sunday, which will be the last matches for them in the format ahead of the Champions Trophy in February 2027. They will travel to Sri Lanka for three ODIs later but the T20Is are not placed between the New Zealand series and the Champions Trophy.

The Aussies will then have to prepare for the tournament in different franchise tournaments, including in the Women's Big Bash League and the Women's Premier League. They are hoping to lift the title in its first edition, after having won the T20 World Cup earlier in the year in England.

"Every time we take the field, it's important to represent Australia, but also wanting to grow the game every time we get out there," Nitschke said in Sydney on Saturday ahead of the first T20I.

"For us there's no other international T20s before the Champions Trophy so, they're as important as anything. There's still a bit of time before that Champions Trophy, and some domestic cricket to play. But it's just another opportunity for us to get out there as a team and working on and putting out the type of cricket that we want to play."

She called the situation tricky and said that they will be looking to prepare more for the tournament in the WPL, which will be played in the same conditions that the Champions Trophy will have.

"It's a tricky one," Nitschke said about how the Aussies would prepare for the Champions Trophy with no T20Is in the next three months. "We don't have the full schedule yet for the Champions Trophy. There'll be the WPL in the lead-up to that, and we'll have some players involved in that, and then it's just going to be a matter of what it looks like through that January period for the players that aren't there, and there'll be some warm-up games for the Champions Trophy.

"The WBBL is a really good chance for some players to play a lot of T20 cricket between now and then too."

With a new-look New Zealand side on Australian soil, the coach feels that this will give them a good test. "I think there's just a real appetite to continue to get better and grow as individuals and as a group. We're certainly under no illusions as to the competitive nature of New Zealand.

"They've got a new-look team, new-look coaching staff, and some young players in there too, so they'll be coming over here with nothing to lose. We're very wary of them," she added.

--IANS

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