Departing great wants more Tests for women's cricket

During her glittering 16-year career, Healy played a whopping 288 white-ball internationals - 162 T20s and 126 ODIs.

But she featured in just 11 Tests due to the lack of long-form international cricket in the women's game - a situation she doesn't want to see repeated for future stalwarts.

"I'd love to see it increase," Healy said when asked if she wants to see more Test cricket in the future. 

"And I think it hit me when (Test debutant) Lucy Hamilton walks in the change room and says, 'I think Test cricket is my favourite format'. 

"There's a 19-year-old kid who gets to understand her bowling and how to set up a batter. 

'You've got some young kids opening the batting who are learning how to set up an innings in tricky conditions. I mean, these are things that Test cricket offers our players. 

"And the ability to increase your skill level over long periods of time is only going to do wonders for the game."Healy doesn't know what the magic number of Tests is, but she wants more than just the single Test Australia played over the 2025/26 campaign.

One big barrier is the small amount of nations that play women's Test cricket - largely limited to Australia, England, India and South Africa.

Australia were set to play a Test against the West Indies in their upcoming multi-format tour of the Caribbean, but that red-ball fixture has since been canned.

The West Indies scrapped plans to play their first Test since 2004 to instead focus on white-ball cricket, with a big focus on the women's T20 World Cup in England coming up in June. 

India coach Amol Muzumdar would also like to see more Test cricket on the women's calendar.

"We love playing this format of the game," Muzumdar said. 

"Everyone in the dressing room, I can guarantee you that they were looking forward for this pink-ball Test match in Perth. And the more, the merrier."

With India winning the 2025 ODI World Cup and NZ coming up trumps in the 2024 T20 World Cup, Australia are in the unique position of not holding a current white-ball trophy.

"I think in some ways, I feel like the pressure's off," Healy said.

"I think India winning that (ODI) World Cup, it's sort of allowed us to reset, refocus, and go again. 

"I feel like there's a little element of maybe we might sneak under the radar for the first time at this year's T20 World Cup in England with a fresh-looking squad and new leadership.

"I think it's a really exciting time for them to just go out there and become a new team, new presence in international cricket."