Wareham emerges as finisher in impressive all-round tour

Georgia Wareham is carving out a niche as Australia's newest finisher, bolstering her reputation as a bona fide international allrounder on their tour of England and Ireland.

Wareham slots in at No.8 in Australia's ultra-deep ODI and T20I batting orders but has made the most of her opportunities across the white-ball games in the multi-format Ashes and in the current one-day tour of Ireland.

Across seven innings the Victorian has hit 113 runs off 76 balls – a strike rate of 148.7 – and has been dismissed on just three occasions.

She has cleared the boundary seven times in total across those matches; only Ashleigh Gardner (10) and Ellyse Perry (8) have hit more sixes on this tour. The next highest are Alyssa Healy and Annabel Sutherland with two apiece.

The most notable of those performances was the 37 not out off 14 balls Wareham hit in the second Ashes ODI in Southampton, which included 26 runs off the final over.

Those runs not only gave Australia momentum, they also proved decisive in a match the tourists won by just three runs to officially retain the Ashes trophy.

"I think I've been blessed with when I've come out to bat – there's generally been a really good platform and I've been able to just clear the front leg," Wareham told The Scoop podcast on the eve of the third and final ODI in Dublin.

"Just generally I like to be pretty versatile with the bat and be able to ideally come in in any situation in the game and do my job.

"It's just the way that it's worked out at the moment, coming in towards the back end and having a bit of freedom, which is nice."

Wareham missed the last Ashes in Australia, as well as the 2022 Commonwealth Games and ODI World Cup in New Zealand, due to a prolonged recovery from a ruptured ACL.

Her lengthy rehab period did have a small silver lining of giving her extra time to focus on batting, as she worked with Victoria mentor Dulip Samaraweera, who in 2022 told cricket.com.au he believed Wareham had the characteristics to become one of the world's best allrounders, predicting she could one day occupy either a finishing role, or bat as high as four or five.

Wareham has, of course, so far been primarily selected for her leg-spin since making her international debut, but her batting and fielding skills have given her an edge when selectors have needed to make tough calls between Australia's strong crop of wrist spinners.

She bats in the middle order for Victoria, and while she knows it will be tougher to crack the same spot in Australia's XI, she is happy to seize whatever chances come her way.

"I've always really enjoyed batting ... the higher I've gone up the ranks the lower my batting position got, but I've spent a lot of time on my batting, especially with some of the guys back home in Victoria like Dulip, who has been amazing," she said.

"It was the first skill I could come back and do (after the knee reconstruction).

"I had over a month of just batting when I first came back so I spent a lot of time on it."

Australia and Wareham have one last chance to impress in Friday's third and final one-day international at Clontarf Cricket Club, where the tourists will look to seal a 2-0 series win after their 153-run victory on Tuesday.

Following that match, Wareham will head to Leeds where she will join up with Northern Superchargers for The Hundred.

It is the Victorian's first taste of the 100-ball competition, and she was looking forward to linking up with new teammates including recent Ashes foe Kate Cross.

"I've heard great things (about The Hundred) so I'm looking forward to that, and meeting everyone in the team, because I don't really know that many of them," Wareham said.

CommBank ODI Tour of Ireland 2023

First ODI: Match abandoned

Second ODI: Australia won by 153 runs

Third ODI: July 28 at Clontarf CC, Dublin, 10.45am (7.45pm AEST)

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Heather Graham, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

Ireland squad: Laura Delany (c), Ava Canning, Georgina Dempsey, Amy Hunter, Arlene Kelly, Gaby Lewis, Louise Little, Jane Maguire, Aimee Maguire, Cara Murray, Leah Paul, Orla Prendergast, Rebecca Stokell, Mary Waldron.