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Jonassen and Australia’s assistant coach and fellow left-arm spinner Shelley Nitschke have both imparted plenty of advice. Molineux is also hopeful that her recent work with the noted slow-bowling coach Craig Howard, an avowed believer in hard-spun, attacking lines and seam positions, will help her stay a step ahead of India’s batters across the three-format series.

“It’s been great to spend the past three or four years learning off Jess and seeing how she goes about it,” Molineux says. “Her ability to read a game and to read batters is incredible and I think it’s one of her greatest traits.

“There’s heaps of pieces to that puzzle. Experience comes with the ability to be able to pick up little things like back lifts and situations in the game and potentially what they’re wanting to do versus what we want to do. Now throwing in a different format in Test cricket, that makes the challenge even more exciting.”

Few will be greater than that of Shafali Verma at the top of the order. Australia have enjoyed some success in defeating Shafali’s heavy hitting with pace, but Molineux admits to plenty of planning for the moment when she is pitted against the 17-year-old wunderkind.

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“Shafali is going to be a really big challenge, bowling to her,” she says. “We’re all putting time and effort into our plans against her and everyone else in that top order because they’re definitely full of personnel who can take a game down in the space of five overs.”

Leadership, too, will be an emerging theme for Molineux this year. She has worked closely with the former captain Belinda Clark. “There’s probably things I’m going to be a little bit blindsided by and naive to, purely because I haven’t captained a team at senior level,” Molineux says.

“Most cricketers now are well and truly across their own plans, and the next step for me is being able to put myself in everyone else’s shoes and be able to come up with plans with each bowler.”

Whether pitted against India, leading the Renegades or facing up to England in the Ashes later in the season, Molineux will hope not to lose sight of something that COVID-19’s lockdowns and quarantines have provided a timely reminder about - her chosen career also happens to be a game, and an extremely fun one at that.

“Cricket is just as important in my life as it was before COVID, but it feels a bit more like it felt as it was as a kid playing it,” she says. “There’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes to be able to get a game of cricket up now. I just want to make sure I do it with a smile on my face because you never know when your next game could be.”

Cricket and fun should go together pretty smoothly. As Combs once sang: “What’s the point of this ol’ guitar if it ain’t got no strings? Or pourin’ your heart into a song that you ain’t gonna sing?”

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