Australia coach Matthew Mott will have no concerns about bringing allrounder Ashleigh Gardner straight back into the side for their Trans-Tasman World Cup contest against hosts New Zealand on Sunday following the completion of her Covid-19 isolation period.
Gardner tested positive at the end of Australia's warm-up stint in Christchurch, which forced her into ten days of quarantine and ruled her out of the opening two matches against England and Pakistan. However, she is set to return at the earliest opportunity, with Mott confident she will still be match-ready despite the spell largely confined to a hotel room.
"Would be different if she was a fast bowler, but as a spinner and where she bats in the order, she would have held her fitness enough during that time and she'll come straight back in," Mott said. "Think she'll be pretty excited to rejoin the group, would have been a long time away from everyone."
Mott and the players have kept in regular contact with Gardner, and she has continued to be involved in team planning sessions from isolation.
"She's been in a few of the spinners meetings and Shelly [Nitschke, the assistant coach] says she has probably given more than ever," Mott said. "Think [with] that separation she has probably realised how lucky she is to be part of the group."
Fellow allrounder Tahlia McGrath is also available for the New Zealand match after having sat out the Pakistan game with what Mott called a "grumbly little foot" that has now settled. It means Australia are at full strength for the first time in the tournament.
Fast bowler Darcie Brown will come back into contention, having not faced Pakistan with conditions in Wellington - including the famous wind that is forecast over the weekend - coming into the decision-making.
"We've definitely got a lot more people available now with Ash and T-Mac coming back in, so it will be a really tricky selection for us," Mott said. "We've always planned for Darcie to come back in but have to work out the conditions here.
"Think it [the wind] will definitely throw up some different combinations. We've already talked about the ugly end and certain bowlers who are more suited to that. The likes of Jess Jonassen, Tahlia McGrath, that can probably back up into the wind, will do a big job and Megan Schutt will have to do some work there. We'll have to be really ahead of the game with those bowling changes and Meg [Lanning] is already across it."
They will be facing a New Zealand side that has got its tournament into gear with back-to-back wins against Bangladesh and India after the agonising opening-day loss to West Indies.
Allrounder Amelia Kerr - who is averaging 92.60 with the bat this year - is high on Australia's agenda after she also made an unbeaten 92 in the warm-up match between the two sides where New Zealand hunted down 322 in just 43.1 overs with Sophie Devine smashing 161 off 117 balls.
"They've got a world-class legspinner and think Kerr is [also] the most improved batsman in the world at the moment, proving very hard to knock over and matches up very well against spin," Mott said. "So we've got a lot of planning to do. That practice match for us was some great intel, we learned a lot about the way they play and some ideas about how we might be counteract that match-winning ability."