Jess Jonassen finds right balance on and off the field, with her form peaking just in time for Women’s T20 World Cup
All-rounder Jess Jonassen spun Australia to tri-series silverware this week. And with some Aussie stars experiencing a rare dip in form, her consistent threat will be vital when the T20 World Cup gets under way.
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Queensland’s star all-rounder Jess Jonassen has a steely focus in her eyes.
After missing out on Australia’s T20 World Cup win in 2018 through a knee injury, the 27-year-old is now more determined than ever to achieve glory in the green and gold.
Her contribution to the side could be vital, with the Australian women’s cricket team heading into the 2020 World Cup with its household names struggling for consistency.
Most notably, opener Alyssa Healy has scored only 15 runs from her past five matches, while Ellyse Perry scored only one run in her last outing.
It’s players like Jonassen, and fellow Queenslander Beth Mooney, who are stepping into the breach, primed for big contributions in the tournament starting in Sydney next Friday.
In Australia’s timely 11-run Tri-Series final win over India earlier this week, Jonassen – and her slow, left-arm orthodox spin – posted the second-best bowling figures by an Australian woman in a T20 international when she took 5/12 from four overs (behind Molly Strano’s 5/10 against New Zealand in 2017).
Mooney hit an unbeaten 71 with the bat.
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Jonassen was rightly named Player of the Match and will be looking to continue that form when she walks onto Allan Border Field on Saturday in Australia’s World Cup warm-up match against the West Indies.
It’s a happy homecoming for Jonassen, who is the first to admit she’s been knocked around by cricket.
She’s battled knee injuries, has been taken to some dark places in her mind, but has come out the other side a more determined, balanced cricketer.
“Cricket’s a funny one, you’re part of a team, but you’re individuals as well, it’s that aspect for me; that was probably the final straw in the sense that I needed to regain balance in my life away from cricket and that’s probably the biggest thing to come out of (my 2018 injury),” she explains.
“Now, a massive thing preparing for any game is making sure I have balance in my life … it’s the mental preparation for it, making sure that I’m fresh when I need to be and that I’ve got things outside of cricket that are occupying my mind.”
A much-loved member of the Australian team who’s played 73 international T20 games since debuting in 2012, Jonassen wasn’t part of the XI that tasted World T20 victory in the Caribbean in 2018.
Instead she was carrying the drinks, having failed to fully recover from a torn meniscus in her knee.
“It was a massive achievement just to get on the plane to go to the Caribbean in 2018,” she says.
“But because I’d been somebody who had played almost every game since I’d debuted, carrying drinks was an unfamiliar situation in that I didn’t really know how I could contribute because I was so used to contributing in another way.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing and that injury only made me a better person and a better cricketer, in that I’ve been able to discover new ways of contributing to a team’s success.
“With our team, we value everybody in whatever job they have to do and it’s not necessarily the leading run scorer or the leading wicket-taker who’s the most valuable person on that day.
“There are so many other things that are taken into account in this team and that’s something I really enjoy – that everyone is made to feel so valued in some aspect.”
The guitar-playing, crime-novel-loving all-rounder says balance will be key for her leading into the World Cup and she’s happy she has a wedding to plan (she marries partner Sarah in May).
Another part of balance for her is found in university study.
Jonassen has a law degree under her belt, as well as a graduate certificate in forensic mental health, which she finished late last year and is looking to do future study in criminology.
Asked whether this makes her the smartest person in the Aussie cricket team, she laughs and says: “No, probably not”.
“It’s funny, my partner always says to me: ‘you might be book smart, but street smart, I’m not so sure’,” she says.
“A lot of my life, though, I’ve just had my head in books all the time, and my parents were big drivers of that.”
* ICC Women’s T20 World Cup warm up: Australia v West Indies, Saturday, February 15, Allan Border Field, 2pm (local). Tickets: tickets.t20worldcup.com