Ellyse Perry, 28 yr old Australian all-rounder, has been a part of women's cricket when it needed players like Perry the most. She is a talented and gifted athlete, who is making her own records for quite some time. She is a right-handed batter and right-arm fast bowler who debuted for Australia's senior team in July 2007, at the age of 16, becoming the youngest Australian (male/female) to ever play international cricket despite never having played at domestic senior level. She played her first match in 2nd ODI against New Zealand. Three months later she played for New South Wales during the domestic season. She primarily played as a full-time bowler for the team before becoming an all-rounder. By February 2008, she debuted in Test cricket for Australia, against Pakistan. Her T20 debut was also in February 2008 against England.
Ellyse Perry has achieved many great feat and records in her career. In 2009 Women's World Cup in Australia, Perry took 9 wickets in the tournament. In same year ICC T20 Women's World Cup in England, she took only 2 wickets in Australia's 4 matches. During 2009-10, she took 18 wickets in 10 ODIs against New Zealand, where she also took her maiden 5-wicket haul. Australia had won all the matches. In 2010 T20 World Cup in West Indies, she took 3 wickets for 18 runs in the final against New Zealand. She played with continued zest and focus hence on.
Coming to November 2018, in ICC Women's World T20 in West Indies, Perry became 1st Australian cricketer (male/female) to play in 100 T20 international matches. In the final of the same tournament, she became 1st Australian cricketer (male/female) to take 100 wickets in T20 internationals. In July 2019, during Women's Ashes, she became 1st Australian player (male/female) to score 1000 runs and take 100 wickets in T20 international cricket(Women's Ashes is played in T20 format). Apart from bowling records, her most recent and celebrated batting glory came during Women's Ashes (test), where she scored a double century, unbeaten 213 runs.
Her current record table looks like this:
Batting Matches Runs High-Score Average Strike-rate
Test 8 (13in) 624 213* 78 45.15
ODI 112 3022 112* 52.10 77.15
T20 111 1101 60* 30.58 105.76
Bowling Matches Wickets Best figures Economy
Test 8 31 6/32 2.20
ODI 112 152 7/22 4.33
T20 111 106 4/12 5.90
Ellyse Perry is a 2 times Belinda Clarke awardee (2016, 2018) and was honoured with ICC cricketer of the year in 2017. She has been the top-ranked all-rounder in MRF Tyres ICC women's Ranking in both ODIs and T20s.
England's one of the most celebrated captain, Charlotte Edwards, has rated Perry as the best women's cricketer of all time but she expects Perry to keep setting the bar even higher. Edwards who played against Perry in 2008, said, "I loved playing against her and she's definitely improved a lot since I stopped playing". She continues,"You knew then she'd become an unbelievable batter, she was mainly a bowler in my career and now we see what an unbelievable all-rounder she is and the greatest female player we're ever going to see."
Perry herself is a competitive yet humble player. She believes in team spirit and collectiveness and very graciously attaches her good performances with her team's efforts. Playing with positivity and composure, she never looses her cool during her matches. She wants to be a role model for young boys and girls and inspire them to keep a balance in life even when they choose sports as a career. Such great thoughts indeed make her a great player.
