The squad gathered in Brisbane on Monday for their latest training camp ahead of their departure but will travel without captain Lanning, who has withdrawn from the series to remain at home to manage an undisclosed medical issue.

"I've finally probably come to terms with it, it's been a rough couple of days," Healy told ESPNcricinfo. "Everyone is a little bit emotional about the whole Meg situation but at the same time I'm grappling with being really excited and nervous about the challenge of captaining an Ashes series."

"I'm sure they were a little bit rattled by the news," Nitschke said. "But I think Meg is in our thoughts. We also know that she wants us to go over there and get the job done.

"We've had some time to sort of get our head around it now and having the girls up here this week, it's really nice to get them together."

"[Healy] had a big couple of days herself, to find out that she's captaining for an Ashes series," Nitschke said. "But I think the fact that she captained the team in India last year and did a fantastic job, the girls got around her, played some really good cricket, so I think she should take a lot of confidence out of that and I think she enjoyed it.

"I think we've got some really good leaders in the group. We've got a lot of experience in the group. I think one thing that we've been really good at over the years is just being able to adapt and take some knocks as they come. I've got the utmost confidence in our group to head across and hopefully get the job done."

The India tour is an experience Healy is now even more grateful for as she embarks on the pressure and expectation of an Ashes.

"I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and I'm kind of glad that happened over in India, that I was thrown amongst it and got to do it the way we wanted to," she said. "It was new for Shell as well so we were both going there and leaving our mark on the group. Grateful to have that experience and hopefully we can carry on from where that left off and get amongst England."

"It's a lot on her plate," Nitschke said. "I think it's a definite conversation that we'll be having pretty soon to see how that might look for her in the batting order."

"Phoebe is so talented...so she's certainly got the attributes," Nitschke said. "I think when we get over there in the English conditions, we've been training here with red balls and we had some overcast conditions in the first camp, but it's just different again over there.

"I think there's a little bit to play out before we sort of work out who our best XI is for that Test match. But Phoebs is certainly putting her hand up. We'll see where it lands."

Australia, who have been training with the red Dukes ball in Brisbane ahead of the Test, will play a two day intrasquad game this week involving players from the Australia A squad.