5 women cricketers who reached new heights in 2023 ft. Shreyanka Patil

With 2023 set to draw to a close, it is a time for reflections and throwbacks, like it normally is at this time of the year.

From the cricketing standpoint, it has been a landmark year in the women's game. While it was headlined by the inaugural U19 T20 World Cup, the senior T20 World Cup, the multi-format Ashes and the Asian Games, the sport saw the dawn of a new era with the BCCI launching the inaugural Women's Premier League (WPL).

In the midst of all the cricketing action, there were some players who galloped along and took giant strides in their respective careers. Not all of them are necessarily in the nascent stages of the same, but they certainly scaled new peaks to establish themselves as players who ought to headline the women's cricketing landscape for many years to follow.

In that regard, let's take a look at five players who achieved new heights in the women's game in 2023.

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#1 Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka)

2023 has been a year to remember for Chamari Athapaththu. The Sri Lankan skipper led the way in her team's impressive start at the T20 World Cup, where they came within touching distance of the semifinals after beginning the tournament by defeating eventual runners-up South Africa.

A home ODI series win against New Zealand and a historic T20I series win in England were to follow, with Athapaththu emerging as the Player of the Series on both instances. Then came a runner-up finish at the Asian Games even as Sri Lanka ran India close in the final.

Athapaththu's purple patch in 2023 hit a crescendo at the Women's Big Bash League. She emerged as the Player of the Tournament on the back of 552 runs and nine wickets for the Sydney Thunder.

This was after she was ignored at the player draft before being signed up later. And while she was shockingly not picked at the WPL Auction, she will look back at this year fondly, having reiterated her prowess as one of the world's finest of this era.

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#2 Shreyanka Patil (India)

Her career has barely begun, but 2023 will be remembered as the year India found a fantastic young talent in Shreyanka Patil.

One of the few bright sparks in an otherwise disappointing WPL campaign for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), her innovative strokeplay on both sides of the wicket and accurate off-spin has earned her accolades. Her electrifying fielding only enhances her all-round value even further.

Shreyanka's talent and performances didn't go unnoticed around the world, with the Guyana Amazon Warriors signing her as the first Indian to play the Women's CPL. She duly responded with nine wickets and topped the charts for the season as the Warriors made the final. This was after she bagged nine wickets in two matches to help India A win the Emerging Asia Cup in June.

Higher honors were never going to be far away, and that India cap soon followed in the T20Is against England in December. She bagged the Player of the Match award for her spell of 3/19 in the final game of the series. And at the time of writing, is close to an ODI cap too, having been picked for the series against Australia.

Shreyanka's stock has seen a meteoric rise in 2023. It's just the beginning of what promises to be a long career for the 21-year-old Karnataka all-rounder, whose ceiling is incredibly high.

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#3 Annabel Sutherland (Australia)

Annabel Sutherland was born to be a cricketer. The sport runs in the family, with father James having played first-class cricket before a long career in administration and her brother Will being one of the more promising young all-rounders in the country.

Sutherland has now established herself as a mainstay in an Australian team filled with behemoths. Her unbeaten 137 batting at No. 8 in the lone Test at Trent Bridge was instrumental towards Australia taking the lead in the multi-format Ashes, while she made her presence felt with her all-round contributions throughout the tour.

Sutherland has enjoyed a fine run in ODIs in particular in 2023. She tallied 240 runs in six innings at an average of 48 and bagged nine wickets in 11 matches at 23.11 apiece prior to the start of the India series.

Having also fetched the joint-highest bid at the WPL Auction ahead of the 2024 season, with the Delhi Capitals going all out for her, Sutherland is expected to take the world by storm as a game-changing all-rounder in time to come.

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#4 Vaishnave Mahesh (UAE)

There's an air of excitement every time the bespectacled Vaishnave Mahesh has the ball in hand. The teenage leg-spinner is quite a prodigy, and it reflects in her evident control and variations after having emerged as the most important wicket-taking threat for the United Arab Emirates.

The Chennai-born Mahesh will finish 2023 as the highest wicket-taker in women's T20Is, having bagged 36 wickets from 23 matches at an economy rate of just 4.43. Fifteen of those wickets came in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Region Qualifiers as the UAE won it all to progress to the global qualifiers.

Through the course of her exploits, Mahesh became the youngest bowler - male or female - to breach the landmark of 50 wickets in T20Is, having done so at the age of 16.

Mahesh was also listed in the player auction for the first two WPL seasons. While she hasn't bagged a contract just yet, her ever-rising stock should see her get into the big leagues sooner than later.

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#5 Phoebe Litchfield (Australia)

Having made her Australia debut in the T20Is in India last December, Phoebe Litchfield has continued to impress and is now a capped international across formats.

The dashing left-handed opener boasts of a strike rate of 220 after five T20I matches. She has made an impressive start to her ODI career as well, tallying 344 runs in 10 innings, with two fifties and a hundred, since her debut in January 2023.

Litchfield enjoyed a stellar run of form with the bat in The Hundred, compiling 279 runs in nine innings for the Northern Superchargers at an average of 34.87 and a strike rate of 132.85. Decent returns also came her way in the WBBL as she managed 309 runs in 14 innings, averaging 28.09 while striking at 130.37.

The sky is the limit for the 20-year old Litchfield, whose match-winning prowess triggered a bidding war between the UP Warriorz and the Gujarat Giants at the recent WPL auction before the former triumphed in availing her services. Having risen up the ladder in 2023, she will hope that the year ahead is even better!

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Who among these players were you most impressed by in 2023? Have your say in the comments section below!

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