The inspirational story of Tayla Vlaeminck, Australia’s pace-bowling sensation overcoming the battle with injuries to make her way back into the Australian set-up.
The 25-year-old young pace-bowling sensation from Bendigo, Victoria, Tayla Vlaeminck has again made her way back into the Australian set-up for their upcoming tour to Bangladesh for a white-ball series that includes a three-match ODI series followed by a three-match T20I series in March this year.
“Tayla has put in a mountain of work over the past six months after a disappointing setback in England. She has shown terrific positivity and resilience throughout her recovery and we’re looking forward to seeing her back in Australian colours.” CA’s Head of Performance and National Selector Shawn Flegler is delighted to see the speedster back into the national set-up.
She is regarded as one of the fastest bowlers in the world, especially when it comes to women’s cricket. Her ability to steam in and consistently fire bullets at the batters, tends to send shivers in the opposition camp. She is one of those bowlers who can consistently clock the speeds in access of 120 kph. She was also a part of Australia’s T20 World Cup winning squad in 2018. However, she just played one match in the tournament. She has been in and out of the Australian set-up in 2020, after playing for a couple of years since making her international debut on 22nd October 2018 in an ODI against Pakistan.
She briefly came back into the side before yet another injury in 2022, a stress fracture in her navicular bone (foot) forced her to be on the sidelines for an extended period of time. But, as we know, bowlers are prone to injuries, especially the pacers as steaming in and bowling fast, day in and day out takes a massive toll on the body and comes with it’s own set of challenges to consistently keep themselves match-ready in terms of fitness. The story of Tayla Vlaeminck is one such instance that highlights the challenges that fast bowler faces right through the course of their careers.
She had an impressive outing in the Tri-series involving India, and England where Australia went on to clinch the Tri-series in 2020. She rattled the opposition batters with her pace as she picked up seven wickets in just three innings with an impressive average of just 9 and an exceptional strike rate of just 10.28. Her best performance with the ball came against India where she ended up with figures of 3/13 in her quota of overs, including a maiden.
She was all set to lead the Australian pace attack in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020. Just then, yet another roadblock came her way as she was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her right foot, and as a result, she had to stay away from all the action on the field for a year.
She made a comeback to international cricket on their tour to New Zealand in 2021. Yet again she suffered a stress fracture in the navicular bone of her right foot, which forced her to stay away from action for a lengthy duration of time. As a result of the lay-off she was ruled out of the Ashes in Australia in 2022, following the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand, Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, and the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa.
She recently came back to represent Victoria in the 2023/24 edition of the WNCL. She picked up 4 wickets in 5 innings for Victoria. She has also earned a call-up into the Australian set-up for their white-ball tour to Bangladesh. “After the phone call yesterday, I was kind of sitting on the couch just reflecting on the last couple of years and it just didn’t really feel real. There’s just been so many times where I have come into the Junction (Cricket Victoria’s training facility) and grinded away, and wasn’t sure if it would actually happen and if I would be able to get back to the point where it would happen (a return to the Australian team).” Tayla Vlaeminck speaks about her journey to recovery after suffering multiple injury setbacks in her bid to get back into the Australian side.
(Quotes sourced from Cricket Australia Press Release)