Ready to Strike: McGrath ready to take the next step

Australian all-rounder Tahlia McGrath is eager to take her game to the next level as her Adelaide Strikers set their sights on the WBBL crown.

Rising Australian all-rounder Tahlia McGrath is ready to step up and take her game to a new level as she and the Adelaide Strikers look to go one better in this year’s WBBL competition.

The 24-year-old enters WBBL06, which commences this Sunday, grateful that a full tournament is going ahead.

Despite the challenges hub life may deliver, McGrath is looking forward to getting stuck into it.

“For a while there it was all up in the air, whether or not we will get a tournament in or how many games we would get so the fact we are getting a full season in is exciting,” McGrath told The Inner Sanctum this week.

“We’ve had three really good training sessions over here in Adelaide and we’re now looking forward to getting over to Sydney and getting stuck into it.”

The Strikers have been lucky to keep the core of the group that took them all the way to the WBBL Final last year together, but they do enter the competition having lost Sophie Devine to the Perth Scorchers.

McGrath is confident in the opportunities it will provide for the rest of the squad to step up and fill the void left by the 2019/20 Player of the Tournament.

“It’s not ideal losing Sophie, one of the best T20 players in the world and someone who you can’t really replace,” she said.

“Soph’s been so dominant for us, not only last year but every edition of the Big Bash.

Stopping short of commenting on whether or not she will fill her role as the new ‘Smash Sister’ with New Zealand international Suzie Bates, McGrath was excited about the opportunity that awaits her and her teammates this year to step up and take the opportunities

“We’ve got a big opportunity this year to stand up being one of the senior players,” she said.

“The rest of our squad as well, we have the opportunities to stand up at different times and make some runs.

“It’s exciting that us batters are going to get the chance to stand up and hopefully make some big runs.

McGrath is one of a plethora of young star allrounders in and around the Australian Women’s

Cricket Team.

Having earnt a national contract this season, McGrath is determined to not let the opportunity slip away as she looks to cement herself as a vital cog in the team with a 50-over World Cup on the horizon in 2022.

“Being back in that system and seeing how hard they work and how hungry they are for success by treating every game in isolation, the amount of behind the scenes working and training that goes is next level,” she said.

“The fact that there are so many good youngsters coming through which the competition for spots is pretty hot.

“There are a lot of girls in their young 20s like Sophie Molineux and Ash Gardener who are dominating at the moment so hopefully that success can continue for a long time to come.”

As the centre of the women’s cricketing world in Australia descends on Sydney as all the teams come together for what will be yet another extraordinary season, McGrath is ready to embrace the hub life with her team and all the challenges that may come with it.

McGrath has also tipped big tournaments from young pace bowler Darcie Brown and South African import Laura Woolvaardt following a successful T20 World Cup Campaign earlier this year.

The Strikers commence their season against the Hobart Hurricanes on Sunday, October 25 at Hurstville Oval.