Wareham adds new strings to bow in latest T20 evolution

Georgia Wareham is adding 'international death bowler' to her ever-expanding resume as the Australia allrounder continues to reinforce her status as one of the country's most valuable and versatile players in the shortest format.

Wareham was thrown the ball for the final over of New Zealand's innings in the opening T20I at North Sydney Oval on Sunday evening, with the hosts under pressure after set batters Georgia Plimmer and Maddy Green had piled on 40 runs from overs 17-19.

It was just the fourth time in Wareham's 83-game, eight-year T20 international career that she'd bowled the 20th over, but she executed to near perfection, with just seven runs – and no boundaries – coming off her six deliveries. Overall, she has only bowled between overs 18-20 on 11 occasions, for a very handy economy rate of 5.46 during that phase.

"I think for me, trying to evolve my game into being an option at the death has been in the works for a little bit," Wareham told reporters in Sydney on Monday. "I do it quite a bit in franchise cricket.

"When Soph Molineux told me out there … I was like, 'OK, all right' and I started to wrap my head around that. I think it's a little bit tricky given how short the boundaries are here, and I think the whole bowling unit did a pretty good job to restrict them to that total, given some of the scores that we usually see here."

For years, veteran pace bowler Megan Schutt was Australia's go to death bowler, alongside Jess Jonassen, who last played for Australia in 2023. More recently Ashleigh Gardner, Annabel Sutherland and Molineux have shouldered more of that load towards the back end of their bowling innings.

With Schutt playing fewer T20Is of late after falling out of favour in the shortest format, developing more options in the later overs is a priority for Australia.

"We've spoken about it as a team, coming off the T20 World Cup, the death overs being a work on for us," Wareham said.

"Everyone's trying to evolve some different options to be a genuine option at the death, and everyone's evolving different plans, whether it be slower balls, yorkers, and stuff like that."

For Wareham, success in the final overs means thinking more like a quick and less like a leg-spinner.  

"For me, it's pretty simple," she continued. "I was trying to bowl yorkers and just trying to not give them the leverage to get underneath it, given the shorter boundaries here.

"I feel like it helped (the ball) at that point in the innings was skidding on a little bit, so it wasn't as easy to get underneath it – but it just makes it pretty clear for me, just trying to follow them and I think that's what our spinners do pretty well.

"Almost trying to treat it like a pace bowler and just trying to hit their boots – our quicks do that so well, so I'm taking that blueprint."

Wareham was Australia's most dynamic all-round player during this year's winning T20 World Cup run.

After being shuffled up and down the batting order in recent years, including an experimental run at No.3 in 2024, the Victorian has found a niche at No.5-6, where her powerful striking sees her fill a finishing role.

At the ICC tournament in England, she finished with a tournament-leading strike rate of 182.22 from her four innings, and with the ball Wareham was equally impactful as the World Cup's most economical bowler, conceding just 4.5 runs per over alongside her seven wickets.

"To have a little bit more responsibility in the T20 format, I've absolutely loved it," Wareham said.

"Thanks to 'Shell' (Nitschke) and all those who've given me that responsibility, I've definitely evolved over the past 12 months, especially to give myself those death options."

Australia will be seeking to secure a T20I series win and the Rose Bowl trophy in Tuesday's second match at North Sydney Oval.

They edged over the line with two wickets and seven balls to spare on Sunday, overcoming a scare that saw them collapse from 2-102 to 8-159 chasing the White Ferns' 2-162.

"We were probably not as clinical as we would like," Wareham said. "I think we probably threw away some wickets on some balls that shouldn't have been getting us out.

"But I think the way that we batted, as a team we always talk about batting with freedom – we maybe just tipped the scale a little bit into reckless last night.

"We always have good contests against New Zealand and I think with the Rose Bowl on the line, that creates some intensity in itself."

NRMA Insurance Women's T20 Series v New Zealand

First T20I: Australia won by two wickets

Second T20I: Tuesday, October 20

Third T20I: Thursday, October 22

* All matches played at North Sydney Oval starting at 7:15pm AEDT

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

New Zealand T20I squad: Melie Kerr (c), Eden Carson, Flora Devonshire, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Bree Illing, Polly Inglis (wk), Bella James, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Nensi Patel, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Izzy Sharp

All women's international matches will be shown live on Seven, 7Plus, Kayo Sports and Foxtel