Sutherland's Been All Around The World

PL on potentially Australia's best all rounder

We spend a lot of time talking about all-rounders in Australian cricket. Mitch Marsh, Cam Green and Beau Webster in particular, but perhaps we should spend a little more contemplating what Annabel Sutherland has achieved in a small space of time and what she is capable of doing next.

Sutherland is, sorry boys and Ash Gardner, potentially the best all-rounder in the country.

Hers is the most recent name added to the batting honours board at the MCG. Sutherland’s 163 against England in January was written in gold below the acknowledgment of Steve Smith’s 140 against England the previous month. What is unmentioned in the stately commemoration is the fact that she is the first woman to score three figures in a Test match at the ground.

She and the equally exciting Phoebe Litchfield lit up The Hundred and took the Northern Superchargers to finals victory at Lord’s last weekend. Litchfield was awarded player of the tournament for her 292 runs, but the Victorian cannot have been far off, having snared 16 wickets and scored 206 runs for the same team.

Sutherland is shaping up to be one of the great Australian female Test players. She has three centuries from nine Test innings (six matches), and an average of 83 to go with 13 wickets at an average of 30. Her 248-ball double century against South Africa in February 2024 was the fastest in the history of the women’s game by some distance.

She has three centuries and 41 wickets from her 40 ODI matches. She was one of the highest-paid foreign player in the Women’s Premier League, fetching a cool $364,000 from Delhi at the last auction.

And, after being a bit-part player in the successful 50-over 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, she is now expected to be a critical part of its 2025 defence, having averaged 53 and taken 20 wickets at 21 from the 22 games she’s played for Australia since the last tournament.

Cricket Et Al caught up with the 23-year-old on the morning her name was included in the squad of 15 for this month’s Women’s World Cup in Brisbane. The tournament, like all ICC events, will be broadcast back to Australia by Amazon Prime, who announced that all matches will be broadcast free to local viewers.