MITCHELL JOHNSON: Australian women’s team need not panic after T20 World Cup defeat to South Africa

The Aussie women’s dominance took a hit losing to South Africa in the T20 World Cup semifinal.

While it’s disappointing for the raining champs not to win this World Cup, it’s not time to panic.

We can take some solace in the fact an Australasian team did win the cup with the Kiwis rolling the Proteas in the final overnight.

Things are not always going to go your way as a cricket team, especially one that has a record like this Aussie team does.

The expectations are high as are the standards set be the players themselves.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be this time. And it’s fine to ask questions why it didn’t work out. The big positive from all of this really is for women’s cricket.

Maybe teams are catching up, or have caught up, to the all-conquering Aussies.

I have no doubt Australia will learn from this World Cup loss and look to get better — that’s what the best teams do.

They could look for excuses such as players available, injuries and so on but that’s the easy out.

Alyssa Healy was touch and go for this semifinal after she ruptured her planta facia tendon in her foot.

She was still considering playing but decided to give it more time to get better in the hope they would make the final.

A decision she has now questioned. Maybe she should have played, but in the end that doesn’t matter.

The Aussies had depth in the squad and experience so it’s now how they move forward from this defeat.

They have been the best for a long time, and I think they will still be in years to come, only other teams might now be taking the fight right up to them.

Ditching Gabba the right move

While I would like to say I’m shocked that Cricket Australia has moved the opening Test of the 2025-26 Ashes series away from its tradition home at the Gabba, I’m not at all.

I have written and spoken many times about why I believe the Gabba in Brisbane should always be the first Test in any home series.

It is a tough place for visiting sides to adjust to Australian conditions because of its hot and humid weather, sand-based outfield and hard pitch with good bounce and carry.

I was lucky enough to make my Test debut there and I also played many games for Queensland at the venue so there is a genuine soft spot for the place.

But we have seen over the year, like the old WACA Ground, the aging Gabba’s facilities have started to fall behind a bit and the lure of the much newer Optus Stadium in Perth has led to a switch.

Though, despite the declining facilities in Brisbane, I’m certain most, if not all, visiting teams didn’t enjoy knowing that a Test series was starting there because of the reasons I mentioned above, not to mention the skilful Aussie sides who knew how to play those unique conditions extremely well.

The sad thing for me is the fans never got a say in all this.

For the Brissy locals and those who travel far from all over Queensland to come watch the first Test, it was a big thing.

I could sense that as a player when I was in town in the lead-up and throughout the Test match. There was always a really good buzz around the Gabba — it’s a feeling as a player I will always remember.

And who could forget the tension, anticipation and excitement leading up to Steve Harmison’s fateful first delivery of the 2006-07 Ashes series at the Gabba.

Following Australia’s narrow 2-1 series loss in England just over a year earlier, a series widely viewed as one of the best in modern times, Harmison found out immediately just how intense the pressure cooker of a series Down Under would be, delivering his first ball to captain Andrew Flintoff at second slip!

The pressure created at the Gabba in those opening moments of the series set the tone for what was to follow — a 5-0 whitewash to Australia.

Starting the series in Perth is the first change to the opening of an Ashes series in Australia in 43 years. It is historic. And it will be interesting to see how it is received by cricket lovers both in Queensland and the across the country.

Will it matter? Or is Optus Stadium, a place Australia’s Test team remains undefeated, our new “fortress” in the making?

While we don’t have the humidity like Brisbane, it gets hot here . . . and dry. I recall the 2013/14 Ashes series first few days being into the 40s with a hot breeze over the ground.

That was at the WACA Ground, a more open venue with grass hills, not a stadium that potentially holds even a little more heat in.

While I don’t like the change of venue for the first Test, I am OK with it being in Perth because I think the Gabba and WACA, and now Optus Stadium, are very similar in the ways I have mentioned.

The Perth outfield is fast and similar to the Gabba when you look at the shape of it — short straight and deep square boundaries.

And I think the pitch makes it equally tough for visiting teams, having that pace and bounce in it. That is a strength of the pitch here and when you look at a team like India who will play the first Test here this summer, they are accustomed to slower and lower pitches back home, so at least it’s Optus Stadium, like the Gabba, is different to that and in the Aussies’ favour.

In a perfect world, I’d still have the first Ashes test, or any first Test of our summer, at the Gabba but at least having it in Perth will ensure the conditions will remain tough for the visitors.