With the cricket World Cup due to start early next year, attention turns to the strength of the national sides. Despite being a team game, victories often rely on individual brilliance with bat and ball. Here we look at the current best women’s players in batting, bowling, and all-round game for One-Day Internationals according to the ICC world rankings.
Stafanie Taylor
West Indian Stafanie Taylor is currently the highest-ranked batter in the ICC rankings and boasts an average of 44.01. Taylor is also a very dangerous off-spin bowler with a highly impressive 142 wickets at an average of just 21.35 in ODI internationals; she is currently ranked second in the all-rounder rankings.
In 2011, she became the first West Indian woman to be named the ICC Cricketer of the Year as well as becoming the first West Indian to reach 1,000 ODI runs. Perhaps her greatest individual achievement was leading the West Indies to glory in the 2016 T20 World Cup after hitting 59 in the final; she was ultimately named player of the tournament having scored more runs than any other player. At just 29 years old, Taylor will be determined to have a similarly influential effect as captain for the West Indies in the 2021 ODI World Cup.
Jess Jonassen
Jonassen currently tops the ICC bowling world rankings and is seventh on the all-rounder rankings. The 27- year-old Australian played a key role in the national side’s victory at T20 World Cup in 2020 with 3 wickets in the final at a miserly economy rate of just 5.00. Australian cricket is clearly in incredibly rude health, especially in the short-form, as the men’s team are 5/2 favorites in cricket betting to emulate the women’s side and win the 2021 T20 World Cup. Individually, Jonassen herself went from strength-to-strength in 2020 and also took her first-ever five-wicket haul in a Tri-Nations match against India. She had figures of 5-12 and was named player of the match as Australia claimed victory in the series.
Ellyse Perry
The top-ranked all-rounder in women’s cricket, Ellyse Perry unfortunately missed out on the final of Australia’s T20 World Cup victory through injury. Perry is certainly multi-talented and is the only Australian to have played in both the ICC Cricket World Cup and the FIFA World Cup (for soccer).
She eventually settled on cricket as her sole focus and became the first player to amass a combined 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in T20 internationals, the Australian record holder for the highest score in a Test match (213 not out) and only the third player to claim 150 wickets in ODIs. Injury permitting, Perry will be eager to display her supreme talent at the World Championship next year and push Australia towards yet another title.
There are of course numerous other world-class players who will hope to make their mark at the upcoming tournament, from India’s mercurial batter Smriti Mandhana to South Africa’s bowling master Marizanne Kapp.
Australia appears likely to justify their favorites tag with such in-depth strength, but the likes of India, England and the West Indies will also back themselves to spring a shock. Bring on 2021.
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