CHENNAI: Even before her international debut, the 20-year-old Australian batter was making a name for herself through the domestic system that was built by legends of the yesteryears. Kalyani Mangale takes a look at her journey and aspirations to follow the footsteps of her idols...
On October 19, 2019, a few months after the video of her batting in the of her batting in the NSW Breakers nets went viral, Phoebe Litchfield made her debut for Thunder in the Sydney Derby, a hotly contested Women’s Big Bash League fixture with their cross-town rivals Sydney Sixers. In her first gig, she saw Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy smash the ball around the park. Then watched nervously from the sidelines as Perry and Marizanne Kapp reduced her side to three for 25.
When Litchfield walked in at five, she couldn’t have asked for a better person to calm her nerves than former Australian captain Alex Blackwell. Whatever the chat was between the two, it got her going. After settling down, the 16-year-old clobbered a perfect ramp shot over Healy’s head. On her debut. Under the lights at the picturesque North Sydney Oval, the spiritual home of women’s cricket in Australia. “Have a look at that. In her first game, at the age of 16. That was brilliant,” Jason Richardson, the commentator, declared on air.
16-years-old. On debut. Phoebe Litchfield: pic.twitter.com/ZZtNEV1o96
— Weber Women's Big Bash League (@WBBL) October 18, 2019Thunder lost that match, but Blackwell was in full praise of the rookie. “It is some age gap between the two batters in the middle! Well played Phoebe on debut. Another cracking kid from country NSW. It was an enjoyable 50+ run partnership. Sixers too good for us tonight. We get a chance to turn things around on Sunday vs The Heat,” she tweeted and the kid from Country NSW responded with a record-breaking half-century against Brisbane Heat in a chase.
The immaculate footwork, an eye for gaps in the field, and the flair in her performance were just breathtaking at such an early age. “Phoebe was a bit unsure about raising her bat when she got to 50 because she was worried she’d look like a bit of a show-off, but I encouraged her to do it - she had earned it with her performance,”
Blackwell would later write in her book Fair Game. Blackwell even took a photo with her after a win as a keepsake. “I love that photo of the two of us - we were both genuinely happy and it was a lovely depiction of the old guard and the new guard.” Blackwell hung up her boots after that season and in a true sense, that photo became ‘passing the baton’ moment.
A few months later, in January 2020, Blackwell put the commentator’s hat at the Drummoyne Oval in Sydney as the visiting Indian side faced the Governor General’s XI which included the likes of current Australian vice-captain Tahlia McGrath, Darcie Brown, Heather Graham, and of course, Litchfield. Chasing 114 for a shock victory, McGrath gave her side a great start, but they lost the way after her wicket. With 14 runs required from nine balls and not many wickets in hand, Blackwell predicted Litchfield might play hard through covers or the reverse sweep.
Litchfield chose tradition over funk. Radha Yadav went full with her delivery, and she came down the wicket and smashed the spinner over long-on. The next ball, with eight needed from eight balls, Yadav still bowled the same delivery, but this time Jemimah Rodrigues was patrolling the boundary. Litchfield still went for the shot, the ball went through the hands of Rodrigues who is otherwise one of the finest fielders in the world. With two blows, the young gun had blown everyone’s mind under pressure against the side that went on to play the T20 World Cup final on March 8.
That was the first time, India saw the Litchfield hype train up and close. It took another two years for Litchfield to get her Australia cap, but the world had seen enough of her at that time, and the question lingering about the debut seemed a matter of “when”, not “if”. Coincidentally, it came against India at the DY Patil Stadium in a high-scoring thriller. In her first attempt at bat in international cricket, Deepti Sharma got the better of the left-hander. That was the bumpy start to the international career away from home.
On home soil in January 2023, after receiving her ODI debut cap from Beth Mooney, Litchfield added a century partnership with Meg Lanning en route scoring a half-ton on debut against Pakistan. In Dublin, after the tough Ashes series, she scored her first ton. Against West Indies at the North Sydney Oval in October 2023, she equalled the record of fastest T20I fifty in the women’s game. A full-circle moment indeed for someone who started the journey at the same venue four years ago in WBBL.
Litchfield is a product of that domestic system. “Players such as Meg Lanning, Alex Blackwell, Ellyse Perry, and Alyssa Healy continue to be exceptional ambassadors for Australian cricket, both on and off the field. With the introduction of a WBBL, we want young girls to be able to dream about growing up and following in their footsteps,” the then Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland had said while announcing the inaugural season of the competition.
At 20, the left-hander has already played with all of the names Sutherland had mentioned. She even has a century partnership with three of them. She is part of the generation that saw women’s cricket on their screen and she gets to play with the legends of the game who fought for it. She never had to work full time and come to practice not knowing when she would play the next game. In that regard, someone like Litchfield dominating the cricket field at an early stage feels like a fruit of what many like Blackwell sowed all those years ago.
With a century and a screamer, the third ODI was one to remember for Phoebe Litchfield! #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/ihhoxGM1qD
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 3, 2024In December 2023, her first time playing the ODIs in India, Litchfield swept, reverse-swept, and scooped her way to 260 runs in three matches. En route, she passed 50 on every single occasion breaking the multiple records set by the greats of the game like Belinda Clark, Claire Taylor, and Lanning, while creating a few of her own. She then followed it up with a few brilliant catches in the field as Australia took the series 3-0.
“Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Alexander Hamilton from the famous Broadway musical declares in the closing minute of the show.Litchfield is that legacy created by those who might not be playing the game right now but secured the future of it when they were part of it. And the country NSW kid who played a ramp shot on her WBBL debut with her idol at the non-striking end is the shining example of how good the future is.
