Litchfield's journey from prodigy to Aussie cap complete

As Phoebe Litchfield tried to sleep on the eve of her one-day international debut, her mind could not help but canvas every feasible scenario she could face opening the batting against Pakistan on Monday.

Those same thoughts followed the 19-year-old into her dreams; would there be a repeat of Friday’s scoreless innings for the Governor-General’s XI against the same opposition? Or could it be something much, much better?

As it happened, Litchfield’s lessons learned from that tour match paid off, and what played out on Monday was the stuff of pure teenage dreams.

Batting alongside Australia captain Meg Lanning for the first time, Litchfield shared a 137-run stand with her skipper, hitting an unbeaten 78 – including the winning runs – as she became the youngest Australian to score an ODI fifty.

"I was thinking so many things over in my head last night, so for that to come off today, I'm just pretty relieved," Litchfield said after Australia sealed an eight-wicket win.

"To get off the mark was the first job but to stick with Meg and then hit the running runs, it's a nice feeling.

"Coming off a duck in the GG XI game, I was just leaving it early, getting through the new ball and then cashing in.

"I'd never batted with Meg or played with her and she's just the best batting partner.

"She knows exactly what to say and whenever I felt under pressure, she either scored a four or came down the other end and gave me some words of advice.

"She was one of my favourite players (growing up), her and Ellyse Perry ... so to (go from) seeing them on the TV screen to now playing with them is pretty surreal, a bit of a pinch myself moment."

It capped a pretty much perfect day for the batting prodigy from Orange in country New South Wales; one that started when cap No.148 was handed over by opening partner Beth Mooney and ended with her mother and grandmother watching on raptly from the stands throughout her 92-ball knock.

Having family present was particularly special, after her parents had to watch from afar when Litchfield made her T20I debut in India last month.

And while her veterinarian father Andrew – also Litchfield’s first batting coach – was tending to the needs of Orange’s ill animals, he no doubt had his phone close at hand, and her daughter close to mind.

That Litchfield would wear the green and gold has long seemed a matter of when, not if.

 

The tag of ‘the next big thing’ has hovered over the now-19-year-old since vision of a net session she had with NSW during her school holidays in 2019 aged 16 went viral.

And the noise only became louder when she became the youngest player to score a Big Bash fifty in just her second match for Sydney Thunder, mere months later.

 

The same summer, she found herself batting alongside Sachin Tendulkar in a bushfire fundraising match in Melbourne.

That the left-hander has largely been able to ignore the noise as she determinately worked at her game – often with her father in the synthetic net they built in their backyard – through her final years of high school speaks volumes to her maturity.

Litchfield admits she had her moments of doubt, but any weight of expectation she may have felt at times tended to disappear once she walked onto the field.

"I try not to think too much about it," she explained.

"It probably comes on when I fail a bit more and I look back and I go, 'am I as good as you know, everyone says I am?' but I think it's just down to watching the ball at the end of the day and once I get on the field, it goes away which is nice."

Litchfield’s chance at the highest level came after she scored her first WNCL century for NSW then produced her best campaign yet in WBBL|08, hitting 280 runs at a strike rate of 117 opening the batting during what was a difficult season for the Thunder.

 Those strides have come hand-in-hand with Litchfield’s first year as a full-time cricketer in 2022 following her graduation from high school and subsequent move to Sydney to train with the NSW Breakers.

Extra time working on her game and hours spent in the gym helped improve her power game, while working with sports psychologists helped Litchfield focus at the crease, given her natural tendency to be her own harshest critic and become frustrated while batting.

Throughout 2022, the left-hander was also juggling being a professional cricketer with her first year of studying communications at university – including the novelty of college life living on campus.

"I've had more time to think about cricket and model the game, think about the game," she said.

"I think I've improved my temperament and also my power game.

"I was a nurdler in my first few years and glided it to third (scoring) a lot of runs behind the wicket.

"So I've worked on that and then just temperament - like leaving the ball today, I probably would have lashed at one first over if it was the old me." 

CommBank ODI Series

Monday Jan 16:Australia won by eight wickets (DLS method)

Wednesday Jan 18:Allan Border Field, Brisbane 11:05am AEDT

Saturday Jan 21:North Sydney Oval, 11:05am AEDT

Buy #AUSvPAK ODI tickets here

Australia ODI squad: Meg Lanning (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland

Pakistan ODI squad: Bismah Maroof (c), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Naseem, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Kainat Imtiaz, Muneeba Ali, Nashra Sandhu, Nida Dar, Omaima Sohail, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Sidra Nawaz, Tuba Hassan