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Australia missed the final the last time they hosted a women's cricket World Cup, but former captain Lisa Sthalekar believes lessons have been learned since.
Former captain Lisa Sthalekar sees Australia's desire to embrace the pressure of a home World Cup as crucial to avoiding a repeat of past pain.
Australia begin their Twenty20 campaign against India on Friday night in Sydney, entering the tournament as favourites and with the spotlight firmly on them.
Sthalekar won three World Cups in a great 12-year career across the T20 and 50-over formats, but she was also a senior player in Australia's big 2009 home disappointment.
In the last women's World Cup played on home soil, Australia failed to get out of the Super Six stage.
Australia dropped their first game of the tournament and struggled to recover, while tensions arose over a desire to spend more time with family and friends after matches.
Only Ellyse Perry and Delissa Kimmince remain from that group, but Sthalekar was confident lessons have been learned.
"I like the way this team have said they want to embrace it," Sthalekar told AAP.
"It'll be very different this time around. Ellyse was young then but I think she would have learned things from that and they will do things very differently."
The 2009 team was an in-between side in an in-between era, with several young faces emerging and the game moving towards full professionalism.
"We wanted to take it in and enjoy the friends and family but we weren't really able to," Sthalekar said.
"At the end of the match the coaching staff would want us to do our cool down straight away ... And we were like 'can't we spend time with the fans who had come to watch us?'"
The current Australian team have already indicated things will be different.
Coach Matthew Mott has urged players to embrace the high expectations while fan interaction is constant.
They have also shown an ability to rebound strongly from setbacks, after missing the 2016 T20 title and the final of the 2017 one-day World Cup.
That's in contrast to 2009, when the team had taken all before them before things snowballed after a first-up loss to New Zealand.
"We weren't used to losing," Sthalekar said.
"This team have shown they can go away when things go against them and rebuild.
"Things are going to go against you in Twenty20 cricket ... You have to be able to rebound from things."
Perry said changes made since 2009 meant she did not need to look back on that tough experience for lessons.
"It's a very different group of professional female cricketers compared to the 2009 group," Perry said.
"We have dealt with a lot of changing circumstances over the past five years.
"It's been a great learning curve for the squad, culminating in this event."
