Jonassen brushes off nerves to put her spin on WBBL|07

Jess Jonassen was so nervous on her return from a shin injury in this year's Weber WBBL, she ended up apologising to teammates for being uncharacteristically on edge in the season opener.

Jonassen missed Australia's multi-format series against India with the stress injury, but has barely skipped a beat in WBBL|07; with one weekend of the regular season remaining she sits on top of the league wickets tally.

The left-arm orthodox spinner's 17 wickets at 14.52, with an economy rate of 6.5, have come despite not playing an elite game since Australia's tour of New Zealand ended in April.

"I was very nervous," Heat captain Jonassen told cricket.com.au on Thursday.

"Actually, I apologised to the girls after our first game, because I was a little bit highly strung.

"I just apologised and said I was actually very nervous … if I came across as a bit negative or stressed, I wasn't able to internalise (those feeling as well as she usually would).

"Any time you come off any sort of injury or lay off, the first game is a bit nerve-wracking, you want to do well and I just wanted to prove I could still do what I wanted to do.

"Taking a few wickets early on helped settle those nerves."

Since taking over the Heat captaincy last season, Jonassen has aimed to mould herself on former Brisbane leader Kirby Short and national skipper Meg Lanning; captains who are calm and unflappable on the surface regardless of the situation.

It makes sense she wanted to explain what she perceived to be an out-of-character start to the season, but those nerves were also rapidly dispelled when she took 3-16 in that first match against Perth Scorchers in Hobart.

Perth won that game in a Super Over – thanks to Sophie Devine hitting two sixes off Jonassen – but two days later Jonassen was again miserly taking 1-14 as her team bounced back to beat the same opponent by 59 runs.

"I think missing that (Australia) series with an injury made me even more hungry to get out onto the field," Jonassen said.

"And I guess that's shown in the way that I just want to contribute to the team success in whatever way that I can.

"It's always nice to be taking wickets, especially in T20 cricket because quite often you're getting some tap as a bowler these days.

"It's been really nice to contribute with the ball.

"Admittedly I still feel a little bit underdone with the bat, but it's one of those ones where you can't have it all, but I'm just happy to be contributing wherever and however I can."

Jonassen became the first player to appear in 100 WBBL matches last weekend, a remarkable record having never missed a game in the Heat's history.

Heat coach Ashley Noffke was not surprised at Jonassen's standout return with the ball and while she has yet to match the output of recent seasons with the bat, scoring 80 runs in nine innings, he expects the skipper to find another level heading into the finals.

The Heat have two regular season matches remaining, against the Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Renegades.

Their top-four spot is secured but the chance to finish inside the top two and earn an easier path to the final on November 27 means there is plenty to play for this weekend.

"She would have felt underdone by a long way compared to what other people were doing at that time coming in, and I think she's just handled herself beautifully," Noffke told cricket.com.au this week.

"She's taking wickets and bowling some really big overs for her team and that takes a lot of skill and control.

"To bowl the quality of overs that she has is amazing, coming off hardly any cricket or training at all.

"Her batting has been a little bit behind where she'd been in previous years for the Brisbane Heat as a top-order batter, but she's still adding a level of calmness to us at the right time and she's getting better and better as she's been able to bat a bit more going through (the tournament).

"I can see her getting better and better through this next period with bat and ball."