Cricket has been in the safe hands of some great experienced players whom we call the legends of the sport. While these players who already have a good fan base look towards improving their performances, there are many who look for a chance to prove their potential. Following the success of their role models, these are the future stars of the sport, the youngsters. 2021 saw many such emerging players of women’s cricket coming to the spotlight with their outstanding performances either with the bat or with the ball or even with both.
Let’s take a look at these talented future stars of Women’s Cricket:
· Issy Wong:
Warwickshire cricketer pace-bowler Issy Wong has had a successful year playing for the county along with a couple of major tournaments namely the inaugural session of The Hundreds with Birmingham Phoenix and for Sydney Thunder in the seventh edition of Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL). For Phoenix, Wong bowled in 8 matches taking 6 wickets at the average of 32.00 with the best spell of 2/23, and batted in 7 of those scoring 65 runs (4 4s & 3 6s) at 13.00. In WBBL|07, the 19-years old showed her class with the bat too after she smashed six sixes against Adelaide Strikers, three of which came off consecutive deliveries from South Africa’s captain, Dane van Niekerk, a couple of key Australian bowler Megan Schutt, and the sixth one from the Australian who recorded her century of WBBL matches and wickets this season, Amanda Jade Wellington. Wong finished WBBL|07 with 9 wickets in 13 matches at 32.33 with the best of 2/19 and scored 56 runs in 6 innings with the bat.
· Alice Capsey:
Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) inaugural Women’s Young Player of the year award winner, Alice Capsey plays county cricket for Surrey from 2019. She finished as the leading run-scorer (134 runs) and wicket-taker (8 wickets) for Surrey in this year’s County T20 World Cup. Winning the inaugural edition of The Hundred with the Oval Invincibles, Capsey finished as the third-highest run-scorer as well as wicket-taker for her team. Equalling 150 runs with one of the premier South African all-rounders Marizanne Kapp, Capsey batted in 8 innings at an average of 21.42 and the highest score of 59. With the ball, she took 10 wickets, 1 less than Kapp with the best figure of 2/9 at 12.20 in 7 innings. Apart from this, the 17 years old also contributed to South East Stars victory in Charlotte Edwards Cup and scored 142 runs in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. At the end of the season, Capsey signed a professional contract with South East Stars.
· Ayesha Naseem
Making it to Pakistan’s 2020 T20 World Cup squad at the age of just 16, Naseem is known for her power-hitting, comfortably smashing the ball over the boundary. The young girl who shared that she wasn’t even aware of a full women’s team in Pakistan until the U16 team trials in an interview with Geo. tv, made her T20 debut against Thailand in a rain-hit match of the World Cup and got her ODI cap in July this year during the team’s tour to West Indies. Since her debut, Naseem has played seven T20Is aggregating 119 runs at 23.80 with the best being an unbeaten 45 on the West Indies tour while in the three ODIs she has made a total of 33 runs at 11.00. Before making it to the national side, Naseem played a number of domestic competitions with PCB Challengers, PCB Women XI, Abbottabad Women, Western Warriors, PCB Dynamites and PCB Blasters as reported by The Cricketer.
· Gaby Lewis
If you thought 16 years was way too young to play for a national team, you haven’t read about Gaby Lewis who got into Ireland’s national cricket team at the age of just 13. Since her debut in 2014, Lewis has been a key performer for the Irish team with the bat and has contributed with the bowl too on several occasions. Captain of Women’s Super-Series (domestic tournament by Cricket Ireland) team Scorchers, Lewis smashed the first T20I century by an Irish woman in August this year during the 2021 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier scoring an unbeaten 105 against Germany. She also played for Southern Brave in the inaugural edition of The Hundred this year as a replacement for India’s Smriti Mandhana and for Southern Vipers for the last few matches of the 2021 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. With the national side, Lewis had a great tour to Zimbabwe playing four ODIs in October followed by a few matches of 2021 ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifiers last month.
· Amy Hunter
Talking about young women cricket stars and not mentioning Lewis’s teammate Amy Hunter isn’t justified. Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman for October 2021, the young 16 years old Irish batter amazed everyone during the team’s tour to Zimbabwe after she smashed an unbelievable 121 not out becoming the youngest cricketer (among both women and men) to score an ODI century and recorded the highest individual score for Ireland in WODI. What made her performance a lot more special was it came on her birthday. Hunter achieved the feat in just her fourth ODI with the national side having made her ODI debut in the first match of the series on 5th October while she got her T20I cap in May this year.
· Richa Ghosh
The 18-year-old wicketkeeper batter from India, Richa Ghosh was a surprise pick for the seventh edition of Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) by Hobart Hurricanes. She was signed after a great ODI debut in September this year on the Australian soil itself. Ghosh scored 32 off 29 in the first ODI and 44 off 50 in the second along with a display of good wicket-keeping skills as well. In WBBL, she played 14 matches contributing 162, the fifth-highest contribution for the Hurricanes with an average of 12.46. In WT20I, she recorded her best performance since her debut to the format in February 2020, after making an unbeaten 44 off just 26 balls (8 boundaries) against South Africa earlier this year.
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