Strano hungry to keep evolving as Vics look to break streak

As the sole 30-something on the Victorian women's contract list, Molly Strano jokingly reckons one of her biggest challenges is just trying to keep up with what her younger teammates are talking about.

But on a more serious note, the 33-year-old is as hungry as ever to continue evolving her game, as she enters her 16th domestic season.

Strano is now the most senior member of the Victorian side, following Meg Lanning's decision to step away from domestic one-day cricket this season, and her experience will continue to be invaluable to a team looking to turn around its fortunes.

"I'm the only millennial in the team now, so there's a massive age gap there – so just trying to keep up with modern pop culture, that's been number one for me," a laughing Strano told cricket.com.au in the lead-up to Victoria's opening WNCL game against South Australia on Tuesday.

"For me, I know I'm towards the back end of my career, but I'm still very inspired to evolve and develop my own game.

"As soon as I lose that desire, I think that will be the time that I do give it in.

"But I'm just trying to work out ways how I can evolve, especially with the ball."

Reflecting on the gains she hoped to make in 2026-27, Strano said she had been left unsatisfied by her last couple of Big Bash campaigns.

The off-spinner, who has taken 172 wickets in 150 Big Bash games, still took 13 wickets as part of the Hobart Hurricanes' title-winning side last summer, up on the nine at 25.66 she took in WBBL|10.

"I've probably had a couple of Big Bashes in a row now that I probably wasn't overly satisfied with," Strano said. "I just guess for me it's going back to the drawing board with my bowling and working out how I can really refine plan A, B, and C … especially in that really short form of the game, which is also transferable across to 50-over cricket as well. 

"I've had a few things that I've been chipping away at over the winter and I'm really looking forward to now actually playing games.

"I love competing. I love putting the Big V on, so I'm really ready for games now."

Strano is poised to be reunited with long-time Victoria teammate Georgia Wareham on Tuesday, with the Australia leg-spinner available for a rare WNCL appearance.

Her inclusion, alongside that of fellow Aussies Kim Garth and Annabel Sutherland, is a welcome boost for Victoria, who have not won a domestic one-day game since February 2025, and who go into the opening game without captain Nicole Faltum, allrounder Tess Flintoff and quick Tayla Vlaeminck, who are touring India with Australia A.

The match will also be Victoria's first at home under Junction Oval's new lights.

"It's been a long time between drinks playing with those girls, so that's really exciting," Strano said.

"But it's also a really exciting time for our team as well – we're playing under lights for the first time, which is a really cool opportunity for a lot of our girls.

"It's really exciting to start our campaign at home and under lights at the junction."

Victoria finished last season winless on the bottom of the table, following a mixed season that fluctuated between heavy losses and narrow defeats.

Coach Andy Christie and skipper Faltum have pointed to the need to once again make winning a habit, a sentiment Strano shared.

"We had a bit of a horror season last year, but there's a lot of learnings to take from a season like we had last year," Strano said.

"We're hoping that we can make a few changes this year that will put us in better stead to get across the line in those tight games rather than falling over at the last hurdle.

"We spent a lot of time reviewing, in all honesty, and it was very much a 360 review as well. It wasn't just about the on-field stuff, it was about things that we needed to change off-field, the way we trained, the way we conducted ourselves.

"It was pretty thorough, but also empowering as well, that when you're sitting in those meetings and we're all aligned and on a similar page, it makes it feel like it's a task that's not too big to make some shifts.

"We're all feeling pretty positive going into round one."