10 players to watch in ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017

#9 Kathryn Bryce (Scotland)

Bryce was the leading run-getter in Scotland’s successful European Qualifier

Kathryn Bryce is just 19, but she’s already gone places – literally. The Scotland youngster was in Australia in the run-up to the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017 as the rookie cricketer at WBBL’s Melbourne Stars, learning from the intensity, the fitness and the high standards.

It wasn’t her first foray into Australia, though. The previous year, she had spent three months at the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy. It involved rigorous training in the sweltering Australian summer. As eye-opening were the matches she watched from the stands at the Adelaide Oval.

“I was the only girl, but having grown up playing cricket mainly with boys, this really didn’t faze me much and probably pushed me more to my limits,” she wrote about her experience at the academy.

Bryce was the leading run-getter in Scotland’s successful European Qualifier for the Sri Lanka event, with 144 runs against her name. At her young age, the allrounder who is studying sports science, has also led the squad, taking charge in the final round of games of the NatWest T20 in England, a tournament where she had the remarkable figures of 4 for 5 in one game.

Bryce’s younger sister, Sarah, is also a member of the squad. The formidable pair put on an unbroken partnership of 336 during an Under-17 game in 2015, Kathryn finishing on 173 not out and Sarah unbeaten on 132.