Sophie Molineux celebrated her 24th birthday on 17th January 2022. The current Melbourne Renegades WBBL (Women’s Big Bash League) star is a slow left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder. She has been a regular part of the Australian women’s team since her debut in March 2018. She represents Victoria in the Australian domestic circuit.
It has been an interesting journey so far for the Victorian with a career plagued with injuries and mental health issues. She will be missing from the action again in the upcoming Women’s Ashes starting from January 20th due to injury.
The highlight of her career so far has been the T20 World Cup victory in Australia in 2020; however, her story of being part of the World Cup is even more fascinating and inspirational. In March 2019, she underwent surgery for a dislocated right shoulder she suffered while diving during a fielding session leaving her out of action for quite some time. She made an impressive comeback to the Australian team, initially not selected in the Ashes 2019 squad, Molineux was part of the Australia A team’s tour to England which was held simultaneously. Coach Mathew Mott included her in the Test squad after an all-clear fitness test. She made her Test debut at the County Ground in Taunton on 18th July with strong contributions with both bat and ball.
We all witnessed Sophie’s heroics last year when she returned to the field to complete her overs after getting injured on her face.
She turns 24 today.
Happy Birthday, Sophie! #HappyBirthday pic.twitter.com/ppocBpbfHL
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 17, 2022
She took a break in November 2019 , in the middle of the WBBL to focus on her mental health slimming her chances of making it to the World Cup squad. She was included in the Australian team for World Cup in January 2020. She did not play in any of the league games of the world tournament, as she had sustained a thigh injury during the home tri-series with England and India just before the World Cup.
However, destiny had other plans for her, Molineux was declared fit just in time for the knockouts. She replaced the injured Ellyse Perry in the thrilling semi final against South Africa where she claimed the crucial wicket of Lizelle Lee . Two nights later during the final in front of a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground, she bagged the wicket of Smriti Mandhana with her first delivery giving the host the perfect start to bag their second consecutive world championship.
Molineux with her abilities to contribute with both bat and ball is a true asset in this Australian side.