Georgia Wareham shines in World Cup return after 15-month injury lay-off

Australian leg spinner Georgia Wareham has revealed she lost her appetite for cricket in the months before her brilliant comeback.

Georgia Wareham has had a whirlwind two days in her return to international cricket, but she says her recovery from a serious knee injury felt anything but fast.

Playing in her first ODI since October 2021, Wareham delivered a player-of-the-match performance, claiming 3-20 as Australia restricted Bangladesh to 107 in their second World Cup group game.

The successful return came a day after she was purchased by the Gujarat Giants for $131,000 in the inaugural Women’s Premier League auction.

Despite the highs of her international comeback, Wareham said she had struggled to watch or think about cricket during her 15 months in the wilderness following an anterior cruciate injury she suffered in the field during a WBBL game.

“I mean it was pretty tough early days. I think I missed out on the one-day World Cup, the Ashes, Comm Games, like all that sort of stuff in the space of 12 months, which is not ideal,” Wareham said.

Georgia Wareham had a major impact in her return to the Australian side for their second World Cup match against Bangladesh, claiming 3-20. Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

“I think at the start I was watching a lot of cricket and sort of finding myself missing it a lot, but after a while I sort of knuckled down into rehab and probably stopped watching it as much.

“I had really good people around me that helped me get through who I’ve got a lot to thank for, but I think there’s some dark days along the rehab.”

The 23-year-old, who had only played two 50-over games for Victoria before returning to the national set-up, said it had always been a target to return for the T20 World Cup in South Africa.

“No one really liked to set any sort of return dates, which can always be really tricky in rehab, but it was probably one sort of glaring thing at the end there,” she said.

Meg Lanning, who dominated the chase against Bangladesh with an unbeaten 48, said the Aussies were ‘pumped’ to regain Wareham from injury. Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

“It was always going to be tight I think, and I thank the selectors for backing me having not played heaps of cricket coming into this World Cup.”

Australian captain Meg Lanning said after her side’s win that Wareham’s inclusion was a “game changer”.

“She’s had a long road back from a pretty serious injury and to have her back in the side was really great to see,” Lanning said.

“She’s able to impact the game in all three facets, and that’s certainly very handy to have. We are pumped to have her back.”

Wareham said she was thrilled to share a dressing room with teammates Annabelle Sutherland, Ash Gardner and Beth Mooney after the quartet were snapped up by Gujarat for the inaugural WPL.

It would be “really cool” for the four Australians to play under Gujarat head coach Rachel Haynes, she said.