Alyssa Healy hopes the introduction of a Dukes ball for Ashes Tests can bring bowlers back into the game and help teams end a run of draws in women's long-format matches.
Thursday's Ashes opener at Trent Bridge will mark the first time a contest between the two teams will use the Dukes, the ball long used for men's cricket in England.
Dukes balls are generally considered more friendly for pace bowlers, swinging for longer than Kookaburras do.
The last six women's Test matches played have all ended in draws, with an average of 25 wickets taken across those games.
"In particular with the pace bowlers (it will help)," Healy said.
"In Australia, with the Kookaburra, it goes soft and the wickets are pretty good for batting. Yes it gets hard to score sometimes, but it doesn't offer a whole heap to the bowlers.
"The Dukes ball definitely adds a little bit to it: you have to get it right, and if you miss it races to the boundary staying as hard as it does.
"It brings our pacers into the contest for longer and makes things challenging for our spinners, which is a good thing."
Healy is not as confident, though, that an extra day will automatically fix the situation, with a fifth day scheduled in a women's Test for the first time since 1992.
The bigger issue, players believe, has been pitches.
"Five days could present a result, but there are draws in five-day men's games as well. So we can't be assured of that" Healy said.
"Over time, if women's Test cricket does become more popular on the calendar, I think there are certain nuances to our game that are different to the men.
"How you prepare a wicket for a women's Test might be a bit different.
"That will become clearer with more and more cricket on the calendar and how that might look to get a result.
"We're not as big as the blokes, we don't create as many marks on the wicket, so we might need to have a creative think on how we can make that happen."
England captain Heather Knight backed Healy's view on pitches, but also believed the Dukes ball could make a difference.
"The biggest challenge in women's Test is taking 20 wickets, and the Dukes ball should help with that," she said.
"We played with it against South Africa last year. It just stays harder for longer, it moves for longer."
