Phoebe Litchfield insists Australia remain the best women's cricket team in the world despite a shock loss to South Africa in the T20 World Cup semi-finals.
Australia's dream of a fourth consecutive T20 World Cup triumph came crashing down with an eight-wicket thrashing from the Proteas in last week's rematch of the 2023 tournament final.
Australia's top young batter Litchfield has found it tough to process what was only the world leaders' second loss in three editions of the tournament.
"The last few days was challenging," Litchfield said.
"We definitely wanted to be in that final and lifting the trophy. But it's a tough tournament to win, very cut-throat when you have to win every game and we just didn't play our best cricket in that semi."
Australia's worst result at the T20 World Cup since 2009 comes amid worldwide growth in the women's game.
Most notably, the advent of the Women's Premier League T20 has created both an outlet for players to earn lucrative franchise contracts and signalled big investment in the women's game on the cricket-mad subcontinent.
All the while, Australia have lost white-ball matches to India, England, South Africa and West Indies since their 26-game ODI winning streak between March 2018 and September 2021.
But Litchfield remained confident in her side's heavyweight status ahead of the summer's home series against India, newly-minted T20 world champions New Zealand and England.
"I still feel like our team is the best in the world," she said.
"Even on our poorer days, we still manage to win games of cricket but I think we came up against a really good South African side that have improved dramatically over the last 12 months since that World Cup loss in South Africa.
"They played out of their skin and we didn't play (well) at all. It was tough to take but a lot of learnings, which is good."
The result will nevertheless embolden Australia's touring rivals in a jam-packed summer, with England spinner Sophie Ecclestone feeling the playing field was becoming more level.
"It's very exciting looking forward,' said Ecclestone.
"Every team must be reckoned with nowadays, it's not just the Aussies that are a great team."
Litchfield's comments came after the Sydney Thunder appointed her the youngest full-time captain in WBBL history.
"It's a huge honour," the 21-year-old said ahead of the tournament that begins Sunday.
"The feeling of going out there with those girls and leading them brings me so much joy so I'm really excited."
