Litchfield heeds lessons learned in breakout innings

Rising star Phoebe Litchfield put her breakout domestic 50-over innings down to lessons learned as she took on a challenging new role during WBBL|07.

Litchfield struck 88 from just 72 deliveries against Victoria in the opening round of the Women's National Cricket League, before falling shy of what would have been her first domestic century.

It surpassed her previous high score of 82 from the 2019-20 summer, which came off a more leisurely 119 balls.

The 18-year-old was handed greater responsibility at Sydney Thunder throughout Weber WBBL|07, promoted to No.3 in the absence of international stars Rachael Haynes and Heather Knight.

She produced her best Big Bash campaign to date, hitting 263 runs at an average of 21.91 and a strike rate of 109.12 with a season-best score of 49, and was duly named the season's best young player, joining a star-studded list of players to have taken out the award, all of whom have since debuted for Australia: Lauren Cheatle, Ashleigh Gardner, Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, Hannah Darlington and Darcie Brown.

"I developed a lot batting at three for the Thunder, it really fast tracked a bit of experience and (helped with) shot selection and game play," Litchfield told cricket.com.au.

"I think I definitely improved and I'm just excited to bring it to the rest of the WNCL."

Litchfield is eager to make the most of this WNCL season to develop her 50-over game, after playing just one match in the 2020-21 season due to a foot injury.

The absence of Australia stars Alyssa Healy, Ashleigh Gardner and Rachael Haynes through the second half of the season will see the Orange product shift up the order to take on a more prolific role.

"To have more time out in the middle really makes a difference, especially for my style of playing," she said.

Litchfield has been touted as a future Australia player since bursting into the Big Bash scene aged 16 in WBBL|05, and was recently described by India star and Thunder teammate Smriti Mandhana as an "exceptional" talent.

"I think she's exceptional, she's very young but she has all the shots in her game which is very rare as an 18-year-old," Mandhana said last month.

"More than that, the way she thinks about the game and the way she approaches it, it's very refreshing to see."

The teenager is among a host of young players who been starved of development opportunity outside of domestic competitions since the onset of the pandemic.

An underage tour was called off in 2020 and none scheduled in 2021, while the Australia A side has not been in action since late 2019, but that will change next month when England A arrive in Australia.

Barring injury, Litchfield is certain to feature in the 'A' series featuring three T20s and three one-day matches, with both the Australia A squad and the main Ashes group to be revealed in the second week of January.