Mooney takes charge as full-time wicketkeeper in Healy's swansong series

Beth Mooney donned the gloves as Australia’s new full-time wicketkeeper against India in the first ODI at Brisbane’s Allan Border Field, with the regular Alyssa Healy moved into the field in her swansong series.

Australia extended their unbeaten record in the format at the Allan Border Field, emerging comfortable victors by six wickets to take a 1-0 lead going into Hobart for back-to-back fixtures. Healy’s farewell tour will end with the one-off Test in Perth next month.

Australia’s first-choice keeper since 2014, Healy has not kept wicket since the end of the BBL. Mooney – no stranger to the duty with gloves, having kept on several occasions in Healy’s absence – was always the frontrunner for the role in the imminent post-Healy era, but was eventually handed the job earlier than that in a bid to maintain the continuity after she kept in the T20S.

Mooney admitted that she would only get better once she took up the full-time duty.

"It's been pretty tough, to be honest. I think I've been a bit of a gap filler at times," she was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "The fielding side of things, I probably get shipped around the field a bit in different positions in the field.

"I was never in one place, so that was pretty tough to train for at times. Then having to do my keeping as well in and around that, I always found it quite difficult to balance all of that.

"I really enjoyed that I could offer that to the captain and the coach, as well as being a bit more versatile in the field. But it'll certainly be nice just going to training and knowing I'm just going to keep and bat, and that's it."

Mooney reckoned she has improved as a wicketkeeper in the last 12 months after getting a chance to play the role more frequently in Healy’s injury-enforced absence.

"Because I've had a little bit more of a go at it in the Australian team, through injury with Alyssa, it's made it a little bit easier to get more confident," Mooney said. “That's probably correlated with me keeping a little bit better as well in recent times. I've done it a bit more consistently.

"My movement's a lot better, a lot more crisp, not as laboured. And I think I'm just a little bit more confident having kept to a lot of these bowlers a bit more. I think it's really hard to come into a team and you might never have kept to Ash Gardner or something like that."