Australia captain Alyssa Healy announces retirement from cricket after upcoming home series against India

Australia's captain Alyssa Healy celebrates after scoring hundred runs during the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup match between Australia and Bangladesh at ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, India, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Alyssa Healy, one of Australia’s greatest match-winners and an eight-time World Cup winner, announced her retirement from cricket at the end the multi-format home series against India starting in February. The Australian captain said the last few months have become mentally draining as she had to deal with injuries, and with her deciding not to play the upcoming T20 World Cup in England later this year, she has taken the call to sign off after one of the ‘biggest series’ for Australia.

“I wanted to save it for the podcast because this has been the most enjoyable little side hustle that I’ve been a part of over the last little period. Officially, coming out today that you hear this, I am actually retiring from cricket at the end of the Indian series. Please don’t make me cry. Not an easy decision, but had to be made at some point,” Healy said on WillowTalk Cricket Podcast.

Healy joked that she made the decision to quit cricket because her husband and Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc hit a hole-in-one in golf recently and she felt like she need to take up the sport full time to beat him. But soon, went on to elaborate the mental fatigue that had set in recently.

“It’s been a long time coming. I think probably the last few years have been probably more mentally draining than anything else,” the 34-year-old said. “Few injuries. You got to dive into the well a couple of times and probably that well was getting less and less full of water, so getting harder to dive back in there. At the end of the day having the opportunity to finish at home against India, which is on the calendar one of the biggest series for us, a multi-format one. I thought it was a really cool way to finish with some of my teammates and obviously some family around as well. It would have been nice to do it in India with a World Cup, but to finish at home would be really cool, really special.”

“Obviously, that means I’m not going to the T20 World Cup, so there might be a little bit of change over the next few weeks that you’ll see within that series and some leadership stuff leading into that World Cup. For me, the opportunity to play at home, still captain the team in that series is going to be really special.”

Australia’s captain Alyssa Healy bats during the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup match between India and Australia at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, India, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

India’s tour of Australia begins on February 15 with three T20Is, followed by three ODIs and then a one-off Test at WACA in Perth, which now appears set to be Healy’s last appearance for the all-conquering side. So far, she has played 123 ODIs scoring 3563 runs with 7 centuries and 162 T20Is tallying 3054 runs with one century. She has also played in 10 Tests. Most notably, she was the player of the match in the final of the 2020 T20 World Cup when Australia thrashed India as well as the 2022 ODI World Cup when they prevailed against England.

“I never really wanted to do it like this. I will say that. I never wanted to announce it. I just wanted to get to the end of the Test match and hang up my boots and celebrate. But as I said, with me not going to the T20 World Cup, it’s probably forced a little bit of change. Not a lot of T20 cricket leading into that for the girls. So, it’s probably been then placed on me to make a decision on that format and give the opportunity for the girls to prepare for that World Cup in the best possible way, knowing that I’m not going to be there,” Healy explained.

“So, yeah, it’s forced an announcement of sorts, but I guess at the end of the day, um, yeah, it’s probably given me a little peace as well, because I’ve known that’s at the back of my mind for probably the last 6 months. Um, but to finally just say it, get it out there, everyone to clap it, and move on. That would be ideal.”