Gardner tips two youngsters as future of Australian cricket ahead of Women’s T20 World Cup
Australian all-rounder Ash Gardner highlighted two key players to keep an eye on as the Women’s T20 World Cup approaches.
As the defending champions, Australia enter the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 as strong contenders to retain their title. Their squad is packed with talent, combining seasoned stars like Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry, and Ash Gardner with a new generation of rising cricketers.
Ahead of the tournament, Gardner picked out two youngsters to watch out for, tipping them not only to shine on the global stage but also to be future pillars of Australian cricket for years to come.
"There are so many different options but I think someone like Annabel Sutherland. We've obviously seen what she's capable of doing, whether that's with bat or ball. I think she's someone that can take the game away in both facets of the game,” Gardner said speaking to ABC SPORT Daily
"But speaking of youth, someone like Phoebe Litchfield [would be a player to watch out for]. She's a very classy young kid and she's kind of shown what she's capable of at the highest level.
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"Scoring fifties and hundreds for her country is certainly no mean feat and for someone of her age to be able to achieve that stuff is super impressive.
"We've obviously got the stalwarts of the team, someone like a Megan Schutt, Elysse Perry, Alyssa Healy – there are so many people that you can name. I could name literally every single person within this Australian squad.
"There are so many people to keep your eye on but I think those two younger players are certainly going to be around for 10 years, probably lighting up the world and no doubt winning many World Cups along the way."
Australia heads into the tournament riding a wave of strong form, having recently completed a dominant 3-0 whitewash against their Trans-Tasman rivals, New Zealand.
Revisit Ash Garnder's Player of the Match-winning performance in the 2018 Women's T20 World Cup Final against England
Despite missing one match, Gardner's outstanding performances earned her the Player of the Series award. She claimed three wickets in the second game and contributed a vital 33 off 26 balls in the final match, wrapping up the series with 51 runs and four wickets.
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Reflecting on the injury, Gardner shared her thoughts with a mix of humor and relief, acknowledging the odd turn of events.
"First, it was probably the first [warm-up] game that we played before a match in a very long time and I feel like as a team, we don't have a great track record of not getting injuries before a game or even just throughout those games. But yeah obviously, accidents happen and Georgia Wareham and I probably have hard heads and we found that out the hard way,” Gardner said on a lighter note.
"It was a bit of a weird one, obviously having a head collision is probably not something that you expect at a cricket match. There was obviously concussion protocols that I had to follow. I wasn't actually concussed in the end, it was what was necessary at the time. Hence why I got back for the second game in such a short amount of time.
"It was a pretty weird couple of days. Obviously had a really sore jaw over those first couple of days as well but certainly felt pretty back to normal come that second game and then last night [for the final game] as well.”
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Placed in Group A, Australia begin their title defence against Sri Lanka on 5 October in Sharjah before taking on New Zealand (8 October, Sharjah), Pakistan (11 October, Dubai) and India (13 October, Sharjah).