Alex Blackwell ready to face ‘friend’ Jhulan Goswami in India

Alex is the only member of her squad who has set her foot in India before.

Though they represent different countries in cricket, Australia‘s Alex Blackwell and India‘s Jhulan Goswami are very good friends. Alex has played in India many times and admitted that she loves facing the side. She added that she is waiting to face Jhulan in Australia’s upcoming India tour. Alex is the only member of her squad who has set played in India before. Australia will play 3 ODIs in India and will be joined by England for the T20I tournament that will follow.

“I’ve had a lot of trips to India and every time I go, I love it,” Alex told cricket.com.au. “It’s a challenge. They love cricket so much there and it’s a great place to test yourself. I always enjoy playing against the Indian side and I think some of my best performances have been against India, so I really enjoy that battle and playing against some of the greats of the game like Jhulan Goswami. It’s always nice to come up against her, she’s a good friend around the cricket circles as well so I hope to have another chance to play against her. It’s a series to look forward to, that’s for sure.”

Alex recalls her chats with Harmanpreet Kaur during their Sydney Thunder stints: “We’ve had good chats around that and how their success has shifted cricket for women in the country very significantly. For Harmanpreet, being a star of that team, (was talking about) all the meetings and functions she’s been to since. It sounds like there are champions for an IPL in India, owners of IPL franchises who have women’s equality at the forefront of their minds. To play cricket in India at this time is exciting.”

Of Alex’s visits to India, there is one horrible experience she cannot forget and that is when she, along with her Kate, her twin sister and teammate, landed in Chennai on December 26, 2004 — the day the devastating waves of tsunami hit Indian coasts: “That was the first time I’ve been on a cricket tour over Christmas. That was quite different. The things I remember most about that trip are playing alongside my sister Kate when she made her debut, and Belinda Clark played her 100th ODI in this series. Also the Boxing Day tsunami happened in 2004, we weren’t directly affected by that but we flew into Chennai, a city that was affected, on Boxing day. The gravity of the whole situation was something we understood once we landed in Chennai and there were a lot of worried messages coming from home wanting to know how we were and what the situation was.”