Australian women’s cricket team captain Alyssa Healy has extended a special invitation to Indian fans ahead of the highly anticipated 2025 ODI World Cup. She passionately encouraged them to fill the stadiums, cheering on their favorite teams while sporting Chennai Super Kings jerseys, famously featuring the name of cricketing legend MS Dhoni.
Healy highlighted the shared yellow color between the Australian team’s kit and the CSK jerseys, suggesting it would create a fantastic visual and atmosphere within the venues. While Australia’s group stage matches are not slated for Chennai, Healy acknowledged Dhoni’s unparalleled popularity extends far beyond his home city, with CSK enjoying a massive fanbase across India during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
“I’d really like to encourage the Indian fans to show up in their Chennai MS Dhoni shirts because they’re yellow,” Healy stated during the captain’s day press conference. “That would be great. Yeah, so show up in that, have some yellow in the crowd, that would be nice.”
Australia enters the tournament as strong favorites, boasting an impressive record of seven World Cup titles and a formidable squad, well-equipped to handle even challenging Indian conditions.
“I don’t think it gets any easier,” added Healy, who is married to Australian pacer Mitchell Starc. “I feel like you have labelled us favorites, so thanks for that. But I don’t necessarily think that’s the case. I think India in their home conditions are going to be really, really tough to beat, along with a couple of captains sitting alongside. So it doesn’t get any easier. I think this ODI World Cup is going to be one of the strongest ones that I have been a part of.”
Healy stressed that her team remains grounded and fiercely determined to excel throughout the tournament. “I don’t think it’s quite in the Australian culture to get too complacent about things at any point in time. People tend to write more about us when we lose than when we actually win, so it’s quite a nice thing to experience. I feel like I’m part of a really special group at the moment that wants to be better every single day. That mindset is already in place, it just allows them to go out there and enjoy their cricket on the field. That’s basically as simple as it gets. We go out there, we compete as hard as we possibly can and hopefully the results go our way,” she concluded.