'Meticulous' Sutherland has made captaincy her own: Garth

Annabel Sutherland's meticulous approach to every aspect of the game means she is already "owning" her new role as Melbourne Stars skipper, teammate Kim Garth says.

Sutherland has taken over from former national captain Meg Lanning for Weber WBBL|10, and Garth told The Surge Big Bash podcast the 23-year-old had quickly put her own spin on the role.

The allrounder's tenure started with a low-scoring defeat to Perth Scorchers, but she has since steered her side to wins over Sydney Sixers and Hobart Hurricanes to leave them well poised three games into the season.

"Everyone who knows Annabel knows that she's so prepared and so meticulous in her preparation, both with her physical skills and then her tactical side of things as well," Garth told host Adam White and expert guest Kirby Short this week.

"She hits a lot of balls, bowls a lot of balls, but also in any meeting you have, with the analyst about plans and all that, you can tell she's done all her homework.

"She knows every player inside out, and I think it really shows on field, particularly with her leadership. She just knows what she wants to do, and she's incredible.

"We've obviously seen her flourish over the last year or two, and I'm just super excited to see where she'll be in three, four years if she's already this good.

"She's already owning everything she does, bat, ball and in the field and now with her leadership as well."

Garth has enjoyed a front row seat to Sutherland's development over the past few years, both in the Australian set up and at domestic level with Victoria and the Stars.

Throughout that period, Sutherland has evolved from a fringe member of the Australia XI to a key weapon with the ball – particularly embracing new responsibilities at the death – while she has seized any chance she has been given with the bat, hitting three international centuries in the space of eight months.

"I think over the last 18 months, I reckon 'Belsy's' (Sutherland) really nailed her role in the Aussie side, which has probably given her a lot of confidence," Garth said.

"Her batting has probably been spoken about a lot, but her bowling over the last little bit has been incredible, just the way she's really owned that death role stuff, and through the middle – her execution is probably better than anyone I've ever seen.

"She nails her yorkers, nails her slower balls. She knows and owns her role very well in that Australian team.

"She's also had a bit more of a role with the bat for the Stars and Victoria over the years, and I think it was probably a natural evolution for her to be in that leadership role now as captain."

Garth said Lanning remained a valuable resource for Sutherland, and the remainder of the Stars, to call upon, but there had been no danger of the five-time World Cup-winning captain overshadowing her new leader.

"Meg is so good at contributing when she needs to contribute, but Belsy likes to put her own spin on things as well, which is really cool," she said.

"She's got a real good balance of seeing what Meg thinks on some things, but then just doing some things her own way as well.

"One thing's for sure, when you go to Belsy and (ask for advice), she'll always have an answer as to what she thinks.

"But similarly, if you say (to her) now this is really how I feel, she'll also back you in.

"For someone so young to be able to do that, she's just very mature in her cricketing knowledge and brain."

The Stars are aiming to return to the WBBL finals for the first time since 2020 this season.

With a refreshed list that has added the talents of internationals Marizanne Kapp, Deepti Sharma and Yastika Bhatia, alongside the continued development of young players including Rhys McKenna and Sophie Day, Garth said she felt the club was well positioned to finally claim the silverware that eluded them across the first nine seasons.

"We've promised over the last few years and haven't really delivered, whereas this year, I feel like, first of all, our list is probably better than before," she said.

"But we've put in some really good performances as well, which is really pleasing.

"We just have a little bit more depth in our list, we recruited really well this year. I think we got the draft pretty much bang on how we wanted it, which is always pretty important too."

Weber WBBL|10 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Total points PTS
1 Melbourne Renegades Women REN	10	7	3	0	0	0.527	0	14
2 Brisbane Heat Women HEA	10	7	3	0	0	0.384	0	14
3 Sydney Thunder Women THU	10	6	3	0	1	-0.002	0	13
4 Hobart Hurricanes Women HUR	10	5	5	0	0	0.189	0	10
5 Perth Scorchers Women SCO	10	4	5	1	0	-0.171	0	9
6 Sydney Sixers Women SIX	10	3	5	1	1	-0.477	0	8
7 Adelaide Strikers Women STR	10	3	6	0	1	-0.357	0	7
8 Melbourne Stars Women STA	10	2	7	0	1	-0.205	0	5

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

PTS: Total points