All-round balance drives Sutherland's T20 game

Annabel Sutherland believes she has found a good balance in her T20 game as the Australia allrounder looks to carry her red-hot Hundred form into the 2026-27 summer.

Sutherland was crowned player of the tournament after helping Sunrisers Leeds reach the Hundred final, having finished on top of the runs table with 315 at an average 63 and strike rate of 152.91 alongside her 11 wickets at 20.81.

It capped off a near-perfect northern hemisphere summer – only marred when Leeds went down to Ashleigh Gardner's Trent Rockets in the final – that also saw Sutherland help Australia lift the T20 World Cup trophy.

"I feel like I'm really enjoying my cricket, I had a really great time in the Hundred," Sutherland told reporters on Monday at the launch of Play Cricket Week in Sydney.

"It's an awesome tournament, so I think that helps, and then the other thing is just contributing in both phases of the game.

"I feel like I've got a good sense of where I'm at with both ball and bat."

Now, Sutherland and Australia will be keen to take that momentum into the coming summer, which will feature home white-ball series against Bangladesh and New Zealand alongside the inaugural T20 Champions Trophy and a multi-format tour of South Africa.

The 24-year-old will also take the helm of the Melbourne Stars for a second season, and said she was looking forward to working alongside newly appointed coach Richard Pryah, who was an assistant at Leeds.

The Stars made the finals for just the second time in 11 seasons last summer and currently have stars Meg Lanning, Kim Garth, Sophie Day and South Africa's Marizanne Kapp on their books for the coming season with more to follow after the contract embargo lifted late last week.

"I think we're building a good list," Sutherland said.

"I was lucky enough to work with (Pryah) through the Hundred, which is really exciting.

"There's a bit of a refreshing feeling."

Australia meanwhile will be looking to add a brand-new piece of silverware to their trophy cabinet at the first women's T20 Champions Trophy in February, before embarking on their first-ever bilateral tour of South Africa – which will include a Test – in March.

Reflecting on their T20 World Cup win at Lord's in July, Sutherland said of disappointment of back-to-back semi-final defeats in 2024 and 2025, and subsequent soul searching, had laid the foundation for their domination of the 2026 event.

"When a team's winning, you roll on and let the momentum take you forward, but when you're losing, then you start asking a few questions internally," she said.

"We certainly addressed the World Cups as a group, and flagged a couple of things, particularly the way that we handled pressure in those big moments, and I think that was something that we showed as a group throughout (this year's) World Cup campaign.

"We were so calm and composed, and credit to Sophie (Molineux) for the way that she drove that.

"T20 cricket is so unpredictable … there's a lot of things out outside your control.

"But I just think the way we handled it as a group – pretty much dominated every game, which is a little bit unheard of in that format – and to cap it off with a win against England at Lords, it was pretty special."