Colombo [Sri Lanka], October 6 (ANI): Australian pacer Megan Schutt was hailed by head coach Shelley Nitschke as an 'ultimate professional' for taking her omission from her side's ICC Women's World Cup opener against New Zealand well, and the coach said that the bowler has a 'big role moving forward'.

Schutt, the 32-year-old veteran with 140 ODI wickets, did not feature in the clash against White Ferns as the pace of a much younger, 22-year-old Darcie Brown was chosen.

Due to their abandoned match against Sri Lanka due to rain, there will be a seven-day gap between Australia's clash against NZ and Pakistan. Schutt has 10 wickets in nine ODIs against Pakistan, while she did go wicketless in previous matches between these two sides at home back in 2023. Darcie, on the other hand, had figures of 2 for 21 and 3 for 32 in these two matches. However, the young pacer was taken to the cleaners during the clash against NZ, giving away 52 runs in four overs.

'Schutt is obviously the ultimate professional, and she took it very well. We sort of looked at the match-ups and the performances coming in, but certainly, I understand that Megan has got a big role to play for us moving forward. We will have another look again at the match-ups and the conditions at Premadasa before we take on Pakistan and see if she is in that right sort of team to best match up to them to hopefully win,' said the coach on Monday.

Before the tournament, Schutt had said to ESPNCricinfo that she had hoped to play the entire tournament, saying, 'I would like to think my previous performances have kept me in good stead for that. Obviously, if it does not work out, I will completely understand the balance of the squad and run drinks as best as I can if I am not in the XI. But ideally I would love to be out on the field doing what I do with people that I love. I like to think I have got pretty good awareness to know if that's not going happen but ideally, I would love to play all the games and get right through.'

The other important selection call Aussies made during the opener was trusting Alana King ahead of their fellow leggie Georgia Wareham. There was not room for both two to play as spinner Sophie Molineux had returned and made a dominant statement with a spell of 3/25 against New Zealand, removing Suzie Bates in the first over, along with Izzy Gaze and Sophie Devine, who scored a century.

This marked Sophie's first international match since December, and Nitschke confirmed that the left-arm spinner will be looked after as she continues to regain strength after her knee surgery.

'She [Molineux] was fantastic in that first round,' Nitschke said.

'To open the bowling first game back and return figures like she did was unbelievable and a credit to her and the work she has done to get her back to being available to play for us.'

'I think her knee is just ongoing management and seeing how it responds to training and games and looking at her availability from there. We will make sure that we are doing the right thing by her and hopefully having her available when we need her,' the coach concluded.

On the decision to choose between Alana and Wareham, Nitschke said, 'Sometimes it is actually not about one or the other, like they bring different things to the table. I think Alana probably spins the ball a bit more, and she is a bit more attacking. Georgia can find a really good defensive length and has a few variations that she goes to.'

'They both offer different things, so it is also about what we think we need in the game. Alana makes things happen, like I said, she is an attacking bowler, as does Wareham, but she also plays a lot of T20 and knows how to hit a really good defensive length at times as well,' he added. (ANI)