WBBL’s emerging stars Chloe Ainsworth, Caoimhe Bray, and Ines McKeon to feature in Female National Championships

Cricket Australia has announced the fixtures for the National Talent Pathway Championships 2024-2025. As far as women’s cricket is concerned, it will include Under-19 and Under-16 Female Championships (January 6-13, Ballarat) that will be played between December 2024 and January 2025.

WBBL's emerging stars Chloe Ainsworth, Caoimhe Bray, and Ines McKeon to feature in Female National Championships
WBBL’s emerging stars Chloe Ainsworth, Caoimhe Bray, and Ines McKeon to feature in Female National Championships

The competitions will be an opportunity for the up-and-coming players to showcase their skills and put their hats in the ring for their inclusion in the probable list for the Under-19 World Cup, early next year.

The U19 Female National Championships will be played in Perth from 2nd to 9th December 2024. The young 19-year-old pace-bowling sensation Chloe Ainsworth is likely to feature in her 2nd ICC Women’s Under-19 World Cup campaign for Australia. She picked up a couple of wickets with the ball in one innings for Australia in the inaugural edition of the Women’s Under-19 World Cup.

She has been impressive at the domestic level representing Western Australia in the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) 2023/24. She picked up 9 wickets at an average of 38.11 and an impressive economy of 5.10 in 11 innings last season. She is currently representing the Perth Scorchers led by skipper Sophie Devine in the ongoing 10th edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and is the 2nd highest wicket-taker for the Perth Scorchers with 9 wickets at an impressive average of 12.88 and an economy of 5.04 in six innings with the ball for her side so far.

After the conclusion of the WBBL 10, she will also be featuring in the Under-19 Female Championship. A couple of other youngsters who have caught everyone’s attention in the ongoing 10th edition of the WBBL, one of which is Caoimhe Bray, who became the youngest player to make her Women’s Big Bash League debut at 15 years of age, will also feature in the competitions. Bray announced her arrival to the WBBL in style, by smashing a match-winning boundary to guide the Sydney Sixers over the line, staying unbeaten on 12* off 5 balls, and also picked up the wicket of Deandra Dottin as her maiden WBBL wicket.

The 17-year-old young wicket-keeper batter Ines Mckeon who has represented France in 16 T20Is, has shifted her base to Australia and is currently representing the Melbourne Stars led by skipper Annabel Sutherland in the ongoing 10th edition of the WBBL. She immediately left an impression of her talent and potential by smashing a well-crafted half-century (50 off 43 balls) on her WBBL debut. Before the start of the season, she represented Perth Scorchers in the T20 Spring Challenge and will also be a part of the Under-19 Female Championship.

The upcoming 2nd edition of the ICC Women’s Under-19 World Cup will be hosted by Malaysia and Thailand from 18th January to 2nd February 2025. A total of 16 teams namely, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, USA, West Indies, hosts, Malaysia, and Nepal/UAE will be participating in the 2nd edition of the tournament. India is the defending champions of the ICC Women’s Under-19 World Cup, as they were crowned the inaugural champions of the tournament hosted by South Africa in 2023.

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Australia will kickstart their campaign in the 2nd edition of the ICC Women’s Under-19 World Cup against Scotland on 18th January 2025 at YSD-UKM Cricket Oval, Bangi.

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