Australia’s selectors are set to make a final call on Saturday afternoon
Perry has missed Australia’s last two matches in New Zealand with a back issue and underwent two crunch training sessions in Christchurch ahead of the final.
“We feel like we’ll have a full squad to pick from,” Lanning said. “Ellyse got through a pretty hard and high intensity session yesterday and she’s trained again today and is feeling pretty good.
“It’ll just depend on how she pulls up sort of this afternoon … at this stage, it’s looking pretty good.”
Perry was unable to play in Australia’s T20 World Cup semi-final or final on home soil two years ago after a hamstring injury during the group stage.
She hasn’t bowled in a match or in the nets since pulling up from her three-over spell against South Africa 12 days ago. But with a batting average of near 50 in the one-day format, Lanning said she wouldn’t hesitate in picking the 31-year-old solely as a batter.
“She can definitely play as a specialist bat and that’s probably the most likely scenario,” she said. “She hasn’t bowled for a couple of weeks now and it would be difficult for her to come out and bowl in a final if she hadn’t done that.”
The selectors will make a final decision on Saturday afternoon rather than leave it to the morning of the final so that players can prepare.
“Six is certainly enough,” Lanning insisted. “Seven is a bit of a luxury just in case you need to go to different options.
“Throughout the tournament there’s been times when someone hasn’t bowled at all. We’ve got six very good bowlers who we take into this game and full confidence that they’ll be able to do the job.”