Tahlia McGrath’s reintroduction to international cricket saw her repeatedly outshined in a star-studded Australian lineup in becoming a rising star all-rounder and now has been awarded the International Cricket Council (ICC) Player of Month Award (POTM) award for August overtaking fellow nominees in good mate Beth Money and Jemimah Rodrigues.
Tahlia McGrath’s rise to glory has been such that she repeatedly forced herself into the Australian XI over experienced Ellyse Perry and that alone speaks a lot about the player she developed herself into after being dropped from the side back in 2017 after a brief first-hand taste of international cricket.
Tahlia McGrath on receiving the award, said, “I’m honoured to have been named the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for August given there are so many great players who are at the top of their game at the moment. I’m loving being back in the Australian team and being part of some really special moments, including making history as the first women’s team to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal.”
Tahlia Mcgrath is declared ‘ICC Player of the Month’ for August 2022#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/QkExhlLqNH
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) September 12, 2022
Tahlia in her side’s most recent outing at the Commonwealth Games finished as the joint second-highest wicket-taker with 8 wickets from 5 games and also made a couple of very valuable contributions with the bat which saw her best come against Pakistan when she scored an unbeaten 51-ball-78.
Tahlia McGrath the batter has got to 161 runs in 4 Test innings at an average of 40.25 and has got the highest score of 52. In One-Day cricket, she’s got to 327 runs in 14 innings at an average of 32.70 and a strike rate of 91.59 with the highest score of 74 has got 2 fifties to her name. She in 8 T20I innings has scored 375 runs at an average of 93.75 and a strike rate of 153.68; the format sees her with three 50+ scores and the highest being 91*.
Tahlia the bowler has picked up 5 wickets in 6 Test innings while, in 50-over cricket has bagged 16 wickets coming off 17 innings with best figures of 3/4 at an economy rate of 5.05, an average of 30.87 and strike rate of 36.6. In the shortest, T20I format, she’s picked up 12 wickets in 10 innings at an average of 13.66, a strike rate of 11.5, an economy rate of 7.13 and registered best figures of 3/13.
After having debuted in the 50-over format late in 2016, Tahlia missed out on Australia’s squad for the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup and then was recalled to the team when she was named in Australia’s squad for the Women’s Ashes in both 50-over and the Test squad. Having failed to cement her place in the squad, in November 2018, she returned to domestic cricket and was a part of the Adelaide Strikers’ squad for the 2018-19 Women’s Big Bash League edition. In April 2019, Cricket Australia awarded her a contract with the National Performance Squad ahead of the 2019-20 season. In April 2020, Cricket Australia awarded McGrath with a central contract ahead of the 2020-21 season.
In August 2021, Tahlia McGrath was named in Australia’s squad for their series against India, which many wrongly have in their head as her debut series, but it isn’t such. Anyways, the series highlighted a grown, matured and reformed player in Tahlia McGrath who’s now become an asset for teams like not many in world cricket and since then has had a rapidly growing upward spike which had, has, and will prove gold for Australia in times to come.
