Australia, Thunder star Phoebe Litchfield is proving why she’s not just another ‘prodigious talent’

Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning have been the face of women’s cricket in Australia for nearly a decade, but the face of the new era is showing the future is in the safest of hands.

The designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia’s only President of the United Nations General Assembly … and Phoebe Litchfield.

The young woman many are tipping to blossom into the future captain of the Australian women’s team is not just another prodigious talent rolled off the cricket production line.

There is an authenticity and uniqueness to batting superstar Litchfield, which explains why the all-conquering national team may hardly skip a beat when forced to confront the inevitable retirements of ‘the big three’ Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning.

While Australia’s men’s team often wrestles with managing bubble boys who have known nothing but the sheltered existence of elite pathways, Litchfield, 20, has maintained a firm grounding in the real world, ever since she became a viral sensation aged 16.

Firstly, her parents insisted on her finishing high school in Orange before moving to Sydney to become a fully-fledged professional cricketer, even if it meant constant trips up and down the highway and sitting HSC exams in hotel rooms in between WBBL matches.

Phoebe Litchfield will represent the Thunder this WBBL season. Photo by Phil Hillyard

Now it extends to living on campus at Sydney University, where she can return from an Ashes tour to student roommates who have no idea what a cover drive is and don’t know her as the next big thing in Australian cricket.

“It’s lots of fun,” Litchfield said this week.

“Too much fun at times.”

She lives in the same dorm rooms that produced John Bradfield, engineer of the Bridge, Herbert V Evatt, the youngest-ever Justice of the High Court and former President of the UN and no less than seven Wallabies captains and multiple Olympians.

Litchfield admits the prospect of being the new face of Australia’s women’s team after Healy, Perry and Lanning sail off into the sunset is intimidating, but leadership is not something she is afraid of.

“I can see myself (as a leader), but I’m so early on in my career still I haven’t really thought about it,” Litchfield told this masthead.

“Definitely it’s probably a goal of mine later on in my career. I did a little bit of it in underage cricket. But there’s nothing like the big leagues.

“It’s a daunting prospect to think about an Australian team without the main three.

“I grew up idolising those main three girls.

“I’m just living life to the fullest at the moment. I’m loving playing for the team and just being around all those people.”

One of the most significant aspect of Litchfield’s sporting upbringing represents a conundrum for Cricket Australia, because the future of the national team might also be the last of the ‘old school.’

Litchfield (right) is expected to lead the Aussie team when the likes of Ellyse Perry (left) step away. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

Litchfield grew up as a teenager playing against boys and then men, where she padded up in the Western region’s first grade competition against blokes who were trying to take her head off.

The exponential growth of women’s cricket is one of the great success stories in Australian sport, but one by-product of this prosperity is young girls can now grow up playing in competitions exclusively for girls and women.

Being flooded with young girls dreaming of playing for their country is certainly a good problem for Cricket Australia to have, but how junior pathways are set up in the future does provide some food for thought given Litchfield, Healy and countless other stars have cited playing against boys and men as a key part of their development.

Litchfield doesn’t believe her journey necessarily needs to be a template given the ever-growing strength of women’s competitions, particularly in Sydney, but she wouldn’t change it for anything.

“Yeah I got hit a few times and you brush it off. I used to wear a female box because I was like, ‘this is actually really quick,” Litchfield said.

“It was quite funny. They’d bowl slower when they’d see me. They’d go, ‘what’s this little girl doing here?’ Then I’d hit them for four or pull them off my hip or something and then they’d speed up.

“I’d be like, ‘OK, that’s interesting.’

“My reflexes had to be fast-tracked. It pretty much sets me up to face Shabnim Ismail (South African fast bowler) or Tayla Vlaeminck (Aussie quick) and go, ‘OK, I can actually face these guys,’ because I had some exposure to it at a young age.”

Father Andrew, a veterinarian in Orange, coached Litchfield in their backyard net and in junior teams and encouraged her to maintain her other high-achieving sports hockey and athletics for as long as possible before cricket took over.

The Thunder star has enjoyed a rapid rise. Photo by Phil Hillyard

Now cricket is entering the Olympics, her choice seems even further justified.

When Cricket NSW posted a video on Twitter of a 16-year-old Litchfield batting in the nets at Moore Park, Mark Waugh was among the former greats to comment on the quality of her technique.

In 2020, on the back of scoring a 50 in just her second WBBL match as a high school student for Sydney Thunder, Litchfield was invited to take part in a celebrity match in Melbourne to raise money for the Bushfire Appeal, where she was captained by Ricky Ponting and partnered Brian Lara at the crease.

A style compared to one of her idols, Mike Hussey, Litchfield almost retired on the spot after she walked back to the pavilion.

“I remember talking to Sachin Tendulkar actually. I’d hit a cover drive and I came off and he was like, ‘very nice cover drive.’ I was like, ‘OK, cool, I’m done. I better go hang up the boots,” Litchfield said.

“I just remember being star struck the whole time and going, ‘why the hell am I here? It was just so absurd.”

And the unassuming girl from the bush has never really got used to being one of Australian cricket’s most recognised young stars.

On the eve of another WBBL campaign Litchfield has just had her contract extended by the Thunder for another two years, and she has sponsorship deals with big brands Nike, Gatorade and Kookaburra.

In the recent T20 series against the West Indies she smashed the fastest 50 (18 balls) in women’s international history.

Litchfield whacked the Windies for the fastest 50 in women’s international history. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

But life as a star still doesn’t seem real.

“I still don’t really believe it. When people go, ‘oh my God, you’re my favourite player,’ (I’m thinking), ‘you’re like 16, you’re like four years younger than me,’” Litchfield said.

“It’s pretty cool to see what I am to those younger people. And that’s who I was. I remember getting Alyssa Healy’s signature on my bat when I was younger and to think I’m playing with her now and I’m that image for younger players is really inspiring and keeps me motivated to keep getting better and being that role model for younger players.

“I still see myself as a kid, so it’s a bit of a weird prospect to think of.”

Litchfield says two of her biggest influences have been fellow left-handed Australian aces Beth Mooney and the recently retired, Rachael Haynes, both teammates.

“Straight away there was something familiar about her. It was as if she’d already been around for a little while, if that makes sense,” Haynes said.

Litchfield has gone from idolising to being the idol of young cricketers. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

“I’ve tried not to be too technical with her. It’s more about encouraging her to be true to her game.

“When she was younger she had this obsession with her strike rate. She was more focused on the outcome.

“I think as much as you can with young players, you should just encourage them to be free and that part of their development is learning through failure, and also through success out on the field.”

Haynes refuses to put pressure on Litchfield by tipping her a future captain of Australia, but admits she has the attributes to help the national side transition from this era to the next.

“I reckon with that stuff it’s a bit of a trap to anoint someone a leader,” Haynes said.

“I see no reason why she wouldn’t be able to step into something like that, but these next couple of years I’d really love to just see her be able to play and take her game to the level everyone is excited to see her potentially get to.”