In a significant leadership shift, left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux has been named Australia Women's new all-format captain. Cricbuzz understands the 28-year-old Victorian, who has been a mainstay of Australia's white-ball spin attack, has emerged as a frontrunner ahead of Tahlia McGrath.

Earlier this month, Alyssa Healy had announced her desire to retire from all international cricket following the upcoming home series against India in February-March. Since it's only four months out from theT20 World Cup 2026 in the UK, she excused herself from the T20 leg of the series as well to allow Australia, and her replacement, more time to settle in.

The official announcement of Molineux's appointment is expected soon with Australia set to name the squads for the multi-format series against India which includes three T20Is to kick off the tour.

Molineux's elevation caps a remarkable comeback story. Battling a stress fracture in the foot, she was sidelined from Australia's 2022 Ashes triumph, the ODI World Cup win and a historic Commonwealth Games gold.

On domestic comeback, she led Melbourne Renegades to their maiden WBBL title, claiming 16 wickets in the campaign. Earlier in that year, Molineux also won WPL 2024 with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, finishing the season as the league's joint-second highest wicket-taker with 12 scalps. Her all-formats comeback in the Australian side also put her back in the national contracts list.

Molineux spent more time on the sidelines with recurring knee trouble that ruled her out of the Ashes and WPL 2025. She returned to the side just ahead of the ODI World Cup in India, but was played selectively owing to workload management with the injury.

Her WBBL captaincy record stands at 17-19 (1 no-result) in 37 matches.

McGrath, who was the designated vice-captain under Healy's leadership, has been overlooked, possibly due to poor run of form. She had an underwhelming ODI World Cup with just 55 runs in four innings and seven outings. She accumulated only 98 runs in nine innings of the WBBL that followed, with five wickets across the eight times she bowled in the competition.

Her leadership record, however, has been stellar with a 100% win record in the six ODIs she led Australia in. McGrath also captained the country in nine T20Is in Healy's absence, winning eight with the only loss coming at the T20 World Cup 2024 semifinal against South Africa.