Tasmania and Hobart Hurricanes allrounder returns to the national fold after prioritising domestic cricket, set to feature against India

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Nicola Carey admits she had come to terms with the possibility that her international career with Australia might already be behind her. Having last represented her country in 2022, the experienced allrounder instead chose a different path — one focused on rediscovering her game through domestic cricket with Tasmania and the Hobart Hurricanes.

That decision has now come full circle. Nearly three years after stepping away from a central contract, Carey has earned a recall for both white-ball legs of India’s multi-format tour of Australia, beginning with the first T20I at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday.

“I’d made peace that if it didn’t happen, I was so okay with it,” Carey said when the squad assembled in Sydney. “It was literally about playing more games of cricket and getting better. I didn’t have expectations about making this team or that team — I just wanted to see where the game could take me.”

Carey, who has 50 international caps across ODIs and T20Is, declined a Cricket Australia central contract in 2023 after finding herself regularly sidelined as a reserve. Instead, she committed fully to the Tasmanian domestic system, balancing state cricket with consistent opportunities in the Women’s Big Bash League.

Her earlier international career included being an unused squad member at the 2018 T20 World Cup in the West Indies, playing five matches — including the iconic MCG final — at the 2020 edition, and featuring once during the 2022 ODI World Cup. Missing out on the 2023 T20 World Cup squad proved a turning point.

“I understood why I wasn’t playing,” Carey said. “The team’s elite and it’s hard to break into the XI. I felt like I’d plateaued, so I needed to get better — and this was the best way for me to do that.”

The results have been emphatic. In the 2023–24 WNCL season, Carey topped the tournament run charts with 696 runs. She has also enjoyed a strong run with the Hurricanes, helping them claim a maiden WBBL title this season. Improvements in her T20 strike-rate, alongside her development as a new-ball bowler, have underlined her evolution as an allrounder, earning her the peer-voted 2026 domestic player of the season award.

Carey’s resurgence extended beyond Australia as well. She returned to the Hundred in 2025 and secured her first Women’s Premier League deal with the Mumbai Indians, further enhancing her credentials.

Reflecting on her earlier time on international tours, Carey explained how difficult it was to develop while operating on the fringes. “Touring is about top-up training — the priority is the playing XI. When I came back to the Big Bash, I often felt underdone. Now, I’ve had full training blocks and gone into seasons feeling genuinely ready.”

So when national selector Shawn Flegler contacted her about a recall, Carey was surprised but didn’t hesitate — even knowing she might again find herself carrying drinks at times.

“It didn’t take any convincing,” she said. “I feel like I know my game now. There was a lot of work I needed to do to understand what that looked like for me as a player, and I feel like I’ve done that.”

Having once accepted that her Australia chapter might be closed, Nicola Carey now returns as a more complete, confident cricketer — proof that sometimes stepping away can be the very thing that brings you back stronger.