Voll eyes WBBL consistency after 'frustrating' year

Georgia Voll hopes a consistent top-order role at her new WBBL home will be the key to unlocking consistent performances this summer.

Voll was unveiled as Sydney Thunder’s newest recruit on Wednesday, signing a three-year deal with the club and ending a four-year stint with Brisbane Heat.

The 20-year-old debuted for the Heat in the Sydney hub during WBBL|06 while she was still in high school.

But while she has been locked into a top-order spot in the 50-over WNCL, where she averaged 41 and hit two hundreds last season with Queensland, Voll was unable to secure the same role at the Heat.

Last season, after starting at No.3, she was pushed down the order into a finishing role after the club recruited three overseas batters in Amelia Kerr, Mignon du Preez and Bess Heath, who added to an already strong group of locals including Laura and Grace Harris, Georgia Redmayne and Jess Jonassen.

The emergence of Charli Knott as a genuine allrounder with her powerful striking only saw Voll pushed further down, and she finished the season batting as low as No.9.

"As frustrating as it was last year, I learned a lot about myself and the way that I wanted to play cricket," Voll told reporters on Wednesday.

"Before last year I actually had never batted that low.

"It's obviously a completely different role to what you play when you (open) … at times, it's good to have those challenges to try and figure out yourself and how you're going to go about it."

At the Thunder, Voll is hopeful she will be able to cement a top-order spot in a side also featuring Australia young gun Phoebe Litchfield and Australia A batter Tahlia Wilson.

"I'm still really young so there's a lot of things that I would love to improve, but the thing that I would love to work on and improve this year is being consistent," she continued.

"You can have good and bad days, but it's closing that gap (between them) as much as I can.

"There are a few things that I want to tinker with in terms of different shots that I'd love to bring into my game but this year for me is about being as consistent as I can and working with the girls around me to bring out the best in everyone that I'm batting alongside."

Voll, who previously combined cricket with representative rugby league, jokingly suggested she had experienced some unease at the thought of playing for a New South Wales-based team, but the offer from coach Lisa Keightley was too good to pass up.

"It's going to be very different playing for someone other than the Heat, they've given me a lot of opportunity over the last couple of years," she said.

"But I'm super excited to get down to the Thunder ... there's a lot of things that have gone into this.

"It's obviously not an easy decision, but the people that I've spoken to down there, I spoke to a couple of girls before I made the decision, I spoke to Lisa (Keightley)."

Voll also confirmed on Wednesday she was progressing well in her recovery from a hamstring injury suffered playing in England’s domestic 20-over tournament.

The Queenslander was only one game into her stint with Lancashire Thunder when she suffered the setback, and will miss the white-ball legs of Australia A’s upcoming home series against India A next month.

But she is hopeful she will be fit to feature in the four-day game on the Gold Coast – and that she can spend plenty of time in the middle, after striking a double century in an Australia A intrasquad red-ball game in Adelaide earlier this year.

"It's super exciting to play long-form cricket, full stop," Voll said.

"We're not playing against some of our really good mates this time so it'll be a bit different.

"It's an extra day rather than the three-dayer (in March), so hopefully the body holds up well."