Alyssa Healy announces retirement from all forms of cricket after upcoming home series vs India

Alyssa Healy announced on Tuesday that she will retire from all forms of cricket at the end of the multi-format home series against India starting in February.

The Australia captain, who has won eight World Cups with her country, announced her decision in the WillowTalk Cricket Podcast, which she co-hosts with Adam Peacock and former Australian men’s wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

“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.

Healy, who opted to skip the T20 World Cup in England later this year, spoke about injuries and how dealing with them has been mentally draining over the past few months.

“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,” Healy added.

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.

Healy has played 123 ODIs for Australia, scoring 3563 runs with seven centuries. She has also played 162 T20Is, scoring 3054 runs with one century.

“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, 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.

Published on Jan 13, 2026