Confident Gardner aims for batting revival in India ODIs

MUMBAI: Australia women all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner, who scored just one half-century across ODIs and T20Is in 2023, is hopeful of finding form and consistency with the bat in the upcoming limited-overs series against India.

Gardner, who sent down fifty overs in the Test in Mumbai last week, said that she felt "very sore" the next morning after the Test, but maintained that she had recovered pretty well on the eve of the ODI series.

"I surprisingly recovered quite quickly, I haven't felt like I bowled 50 overs in a Test match a couple of days ago, so I feel ready to go again," Gardner was quoted by ICC.

Gardner didn't have a great time with the bat in the Women's Big Bash League and admitted to being frustrated by her batting returns. However, she put down her recent lack of runs to indecision rather than technical flaws. She aims to improve her performance in the upcoming six limited-overs matches in India.

"I feel like I'm not that far away, I don't think it's technical, it's just not being able to make clear decisions. In a place like India, you have to be really clear on your gameplan and that's something that I'm really going to focus on in these last six games over here in India," she said.

With the ball, though, Gardner is bubbling with confidence and has strong backing from skipper Alyssa Healy. The all-rounder hoped that the confidence she has built with her bowling translated through to her batting.

"That's something that I've done over the last few years, really tried to hone in on what I'm really good at with the ball and being able to utilise that more often than not. That comes back to Alyssa Healy having a lot of faith in me with the ball at the moment, which has put my confidence in a really good place.

"I'm in a really good spot with the ball at the moment and hopefully that can transfer over to the bat as well," Gardner said.