2019 review: Women’s team of the year

The end of the year is a good time to reflect back – the good, the bad and the ugly. The performances of players are reviewed and usually, there are teams of the year made for each format. Best players from each format are picked and there are some personal preferences as well if there are clashes between two players. However, most of those teams are for men’s cricket. You don’t usually see a women’s team of the year.

Apart from the Ashes which is also a one-off, women hardly play any Test cricket. However, there is quite a bit of white-ball cricket. Most teams across the world play a lot of short-form cricket. Thus, here we make a combined team of 2019 picking from the women’s ODIs and women’s T20Is.

Alyssa Healy (wk)

It was a fine year for Alyssa Healy. She churned out runs for fun in international cricket. Be it the ODIs or the T20Is, the Australia wicket-keeper bat seemed to be in full flow. She ended the year as the leading run-getter in ODI cricket as she amassed 669 runs (two hundreds and five fifties) at an average of 60.81. Moreover, the Aussie opener had a strike-rate of 110.03. In the shortest format, she was fifth on the list of most runs in the year 2019. Healy made 372 runs at an average of 53.14 and a strike-rate of 173.02. She also smashed a phenomenal 148 which is the highest-ever in women’s T20Is.

Smriti Mandhana

For a couple of years now, Smriti Mandhana has been India’s premier batter. She has been scoring runs consistently across both formats and has been giving the team some good starts. This year, she may not have broken records and had an eye-catching year but she was consistent. The Indian opener scored 423 runs at an average of 70.50 in ODI cricket while she aggregated 405 runs in the shortest format which is the third-most in 2019.

Sophie Devine

Sophie Devine was smashing it left, right and centre in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) this season. She didn’t play a lot of international cricket. She played a total of nine international matches in 2019 – six ODIs and three T20Is. But she did look good in the few games she played. In T20Is, she scored a couple of half-centuries and even picked up four wickets. Meanwhile, in the 50-over format, she blew hot and cold but still ended up with 160 runs at an average of 32 and also took five wickets.

Meg Lanning

2019 was a phenomenal year for the Australian women’s captain. Meg Lanning got runs consistently in both the shorter formats. In ODI cricket, she’s in the top five run-getters of the year as she made 477 runs at an average of 53.50. In the shortest format, Lanning scored 265 runs and was dismissed only twice. She also scored 133 in one of the T20I which was the highest individual score in women’s T20Is before Healy broke it.

Ellyse Perry

Ellyse Perry continues to dominate with both bat and ball. She has had an excellent year across formats and in all departments as well. Perry was hard to dismiss this year. She remained unbeaten in five out of her 11 ODI innings while she was dismissed just once in six T20I innings. She a total of 591 runs across the two white-ball formats. The premier Australia all-rounder was the third-highest wicket-taker in ODI cricket – 21 wickets at an average of 13.52. In T20Is, she bowled a little less but still ended up picking six wickets and had an economy of 5.82.

Bismah Maroof

The start of 2019 wasn’t too great for Bismah Maroof. She had a very indifferent time with the bat where she got starts in a few games but couldn’t convert them. However, she turned it around in the latter half and was pretty consistent. In fact, the Pakistan left-handed batter finished the year as the leading run-getter in T20Is. Maroof made 459 runs at an average of 41.72. She had just three single-figure scores from 14 T20I innings. Meanwhile, she made 273 runs in ODI cricket as well. Mahroof bowled a lot lesser this year and it was just an over or two per game.

Stafanie Taylor

Stafanie Taylor had a pretty good year as well. The West Indian had a good time with the bat in both white-ball formats. She scored 472 runs at an average of 47.20 in ODI cricket while got 152 runs at an average of 38.00 in the shortest format. Taylor got a total of 10 wickets (eight in ODIs and two in T20Is). She was the premier West Indian player this year.

Jess Jonassen

It was a very good year for the Australian bowlers. Jess Jonassen was one of Australia’s premier wicket-takers. She finished at the top of the wicket charts in ODI cricket as she picked 23 wickets at an average of 12.60. Moreover, she had an economy of just 3.12. In T20Is, she took 11 wickets and conceded runs at a rate of 4.60.

Megan Schutt

Megan Schutt continued her good run and continued to put in some excellent performances for Australia. In total, 20 international games in 2019 and picked up 30 wickets. No other Australian bowler had more wickets in T20Is than Schutt (14 wickets from nine games). Meanwhile, she took 16 wickets at an average of 19.68 in the 50-over format. She had excellent control and threatened to take a wicket every time she had the ball in hand.

Anya Shrubsole

It was another good year for Anya Shrubsole. She was simply brilliant in the 50-over format. The England pacer finished the year 2019 as the second-leading wicket-taker in ODI cricket. She picked up 22 wickets at an average of 19.59. She didn’t pick up a five-wicket haul but was consistent and picked up wickets almost every game. In T20Is, Shrubsole picked up nine wickets from as many games.

Poonam Yadav

After a fine 2018, Poonam Yadav had another excellent year. For the second year in a row, she finished in the top five wicket-takers list in ODI cricket. In 2019, she took 19 wickets at an average of 20.00 from 11 games. In T20Is, the leg-spinner picked up 16 wickets which is the second-most for an Indian bowler in the shortest format and had an economy 5.81.