Calm, caring, cheeky, captain: Molineux set for new innings

In eight years of international cricket, Sophie Molineux has experienced the highs of World Cup wins and the lows of long, lonely rehabilitations. 

The 28-year-old from Bairnsdale in country Victoria has danced on stage with Katy Perry at the MCG, and sat on the couch at home, laid low by injury as she watched teammates lifting trophies overseas through a screen.

A shoulder reconstruction, a stress fracture of the foot and multiple knee surgeries mean that in eight years, Molineux has played just 58 international matches.

Now, as she takes the reins as Australian captain, Molineux is adamant about one thing: she would not change a thing.

"I look back at those and I wouldn't change any of it, it's been a part of my journey and I'm grateful for everything that's come my way," Molineux said on Melbourne on Thursday. 

"It's been tricky at times, but I've always had my family and the support of everyone around me ... I'm sure I'll be able to bring some of those lessons into this."

The spin-bowling allrounder was just 13 years old when World Cup-winning former Australia coach John Harmer predicted she'd one day wear the green and gold, after he encountered her playing club cricket.

At the time, Molineux dreamed only of wearing the 'Baggy Green' of the Bairnsdale Cricket Club, and of playing alongside her dad. She was scarcely aware there was an Australian women's team, let alone dreaming of one day being its captain.

But before she had even celebrated her 18th birthday, Molineux was not just capturing attention for her skills with bat and ball – her leadership qualities had also been recognised within Victoria's underage pathways, and she led her state to a national title. 

From those early teenage years, Molineux's rise was meteoric. She was an inaugural Renegade at age 17, and her performances in red quickly thrust her into the frame for international selection.

She broke into the Australian T20I XI in early 2018, just months after her 20th birthday, and six months later, was celebrating in the Caribbean with a T20 World Cup medal around her neck.

A shoulder injury in 2019 was a setback, ruling her out of the white-ball legs of Australia's away Ashes triumph, but she returned to make her Test debut in Taunton. Belinda Clark presented Molineux's Baggy Green and she made an instant impact taking four wickets and scoring 62 runs in a drawn encounter.

The allrounder quickly endeared herself to fans, not only with her on-field talent, but also with her infectious personality and off-field antics – from DJ'ing at a school appearance in Guyana to dancing on stage with Katy Perry, a second T20 World Cup medal around her neck.

At the time, Molineux had the world at her feet.

It was in 2021 that she was named Renegades captain – the youngest player to be handed the honour at the club at age 23. Molineux worked closely with Australia legend Clark to hone her skills prior to that first season in charge and already, those with a close eye on the women's team could see she was shaping as a potential eventual successor to Meg Lanning.

But the fates delivered a reminder that elite sport can be cruel: as she led the Renegades back to the top four in her first season at the helm, Molineux was struck down by a stress fracture in her foot that would ultimately rule her out of the 2022 Ashes, ODI World Cup in New Zealand and the Commonwealth Games.

Back on the park in late 2022 with the Renegades and hoping to push a chase for an Australian recall, Molineux was bowling the final over of the Melbourne Derby at the CitiPower centre when her leg gave way mid-delivery. It was immediately clear she had ruptured her ACL.

Players from both teams stood shellshocked as close friend Georgia Wareham – herself sidelined by an ACL – helped Molineux limp from the field. 

Amid those disappointments, she also lost her Cricket Australia contract.

She was never far from selectors' minds, however, and shortly after her first games back for Victoria in 2024, Molineux was named captain of the Governor-General's XI and shortly after, called in for a Test against South Africa at the WACA Ground. 

Successful personal tours of Bangladesh and the T20 World Cup in the UAE followed, before Molineux led the Renegades to their first WBBL title in November 2024. 

It was a remarkable turnaround for a side that had struggled across the previous two seasons while their skipper and other key players were sidelined, and it was a campaign that held extra meaning as the 'Gades rallied to support teammate Josie Dooley following her life-threatening stroke.

Then, just as Molineux had looked to cement her spot back across all formats, her troublesome knee again intervened in December 2024, sidelining her for last year's multi-format Ashes and leaving her facing a race against time to make the 2025 ODI World Cup – a race she won, just, although the need to keep managing the joint meant she played just four of seven games throughout the tournament in India and Sri Lanka. 

To those outside of the team, those setbacks meant Molineux's name did not immediately spring to mind when Alyssa Healy announced her retirement earlier this month.

But she had never fallen off the radar of the selectors, who were well aware that behind the Victorian's cheeky outwards demeanour was a serious student of the game, and a caring, calm and capable leader.

Those skills are ones Molineux has honed in recent years as Renegades and Victoria captain, but they are also innate. Speaking to cricket.com.au in 2018, Harmer said of a then-20-year-old Molineux: "She's very game aware, almost street-cunning … she could read the game so well even (as a 13-year-old). She's leadership material too, she's an excellent leader ... her innate feeling for the game is amazing, she belongs on the cricket field."

There is perhaps no better example of Molineux's care for her teammates, and love of her team, than her actions after Australia won that long-awaited ODI World Cup in Christchurch in 2022.

She'd been forced to watch the tournament from the couch with fellow injured teammates Wareham and Tayla Vlaeminck, but when the triumphant champions touched back down at Tullamarine Airport, Molineux was there in Arrivals waiting to congratulate her mates.

Faced with a massive decision around who would steer Australia into a new era after Healy shared her intention to retire, the Australian selectors reached out to Molineux just before Christmas, to gauge her interest in applying for the top job.

"I spent that time in Bairnsdale over Christmas and was able to have a really good think about it," Molineux said during her first press conference as captain on Thursday.

"I've always enjoyed leadership. I've always enjoyed the opportunities I've had leading teams, starting at the Melbourne Renegades and at Victoria. 

"I know it's a real passion for me and I suppose in this Australian space within the four walls, there's a lot of us that haven't had (leadership) titles over the years or anything like that, but I do really care about that team, and I've always thought about how we can be better and how we can keep dominating world cricket. 

"That phone call from Flegs asking me if I'd be interested in going through the process, that probably sparked something in me – why not give it a crack and see how far I got? 

"It's been an amazing process to go through personally, and it's just a real honour today to stand here."

The retirement of Healy is yet another major change for the Australian team, two years on from the retirement of Meg Lanning.

Molineux will need to help steer the national team through a period over the coming years that will not only see Australia contest this year's T20 World Cup, an away Ashes and Champions Trophy in 2027 and the LA Olympics in 2028, but which is also likely to bring more significant shifts as further generational players reach the end of their careers.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Flegler said he was confident Molineux, and her vice-captains Tahlia McGrath and Ashleigh Gardner, were up to the job.

"You can see she's pretty calm ... she's pretty cheeky as well," Flegler said. 

"She's got a bit of white-line fever at times when she's out there, she's extremely competitive, but she also brings people together, and we think Soph is the right person for this time. 

"We've got T20 tournaments coming up in the next few years. That's the key format, and Soph has had success with the Renegades doing that. 

"We think she's going to be a great appointment."

Looking back over the highs and, particularly, the lows of her career to date, Molineux can see how adversity has shaped her into the player she is today, and equipped her for the challenges ahead.

"The injuries and the setbacks, that's all a part of sport, but it's probably given me greater perspective," she said. 

"Things are never as bad as they seem in the moment, or as good, sometimes. 

"I could probably use that to my strength at times, and it might keep me a bit more consistent and calm in moments – I know we're going to have a lot of big moments coming up that we're going to need that calmness.

"A real passion of mine is to be able to just play, and I think having that time away and not playing as many games as I've wanted to over the last three or four years, I just don't want to take anything for granted moving on. 

"An opportunity like this is a real honour. It's absolutely amazing and I suppose six-year-old Sophie wouldn't believe it."

NRMA Insurance Australia v India Multi-Format Series

Australia T20I squad: Sophie Molineux (c), Ashleigh Gardner (vc), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

 

India T20I squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Renuka Thakur, Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Uma Chetry, Arundhati Reddy, Amanjot Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Bharti Fulmali, Shreyanka Patil

February 15: First T20, SCG, 7:15pm AEDT

February 19: Second T20, Manuka Oval, Canberra, 7:15pm AEDT

February 21: Third T20, Adelaide Oval, 7:15pm AEDT

Australia ODI squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Sophie Molineux (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

 

India ODI squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Renuka Thakur, Sree Charani, Vaishnavi Sharma, Kranti Gaud, Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Kashvee Gautam, Amanjot Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Uma Chetry, Harleen Deol

February 24: First ODI, Allan Border Field, Brisbane, 2:50pm AEDT

February 27: Second ODI, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 2:50pm AEDT

March 1: Third ODI, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 2:50pm AEDT

Australia Test squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Sophie Molineux (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

 

India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Renuka Singh, Sneh Rana, Amanjot Kaur, Uma Chetry, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Kranti Gaud, Vaishnavi Sharma, Sayali Satghare

March 6-9: Test match, WACA Ground, 4:20pm AEDT (D/N)