You have to be a bit mad to be a bowler in T20Is: Georgia Wareham

Georgia Wareham, the leg-spinner in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad, may be generous in looping her deliveries, but she is also aware that a big shot by the batter is always around the corner.

“You have to be a bit mad to be a bowler, particularly in T20,” said Wareham, who is an avid gamer. “Eyes light up when batters see you give it some flight and they just tend to line us up a little bit more. I’ve been doing it for ages, so I’m kind of used to it! It can become very tactical, you have to try and keep it out of their hot zones, but sometimes you put it in the perfect area and it still goes for six.”

At 20 years of age, Wareham is one of the younger players in the circuit. But not everything about youngsters is loudness and fun. She is one of the quieter beings in the hosts’ side, which has a mixture of introverts and extroverts.

“I’m definitely one of the quieter ones in the team, I tend to sit back, and I think as a bowler and particularly a spinner, you have to be quite chill and on a level,” said the Victorian player. "As long as you’re resilient and you can come back from getting hit for boundaries, you’ll be in good stead.”

Spinners have an economy rate of 6.53 in Australia, the most in any country to have hosted T20Is. But their strike rate of 19.6 is also the lowest, meaning there are handsome rewards for the higher risks. Apart from Wareham, there are a plethora of leg-spinners who will be seen in the tournament like Pakistan’s Syeda Aroob Shah, England’s Sarah Glenn, New Zealand’s Amelia Kerr, India’s Poonam Yadav and Harleen Deol, Thailand’s Suleeporn Laomi, etc. Only Sri Lanka have travelled Down Under without a leggie in their ranks.

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“It can be tough to bowl leg-spin but it’s been pretty big in T20,” said Wareham, who was named Australia’s Young Player of the Year in 2019. “It seems most teams try to get a leggie into their team one way or another. It’s a point of difference.”

The youngster sure knows she will vie for a spot in the side with the likes of Jess Jonassen, Sophie Molineux as well as Ashleigh Gardner giving the team the spinning options.

“We look to Jess to get us back into games with the ball and with Sophie and Ash, there’s plenty to choose from,” said Wareham, who has 23 T20I wickets in 22 games.

“You’re not always going to be a hero. We all bowl in partnerships, with the pacers as well, we all work together. Some days some bowlers might be more attacking than others, and some of us have to take a back seat. We’ve played with each other enough to know that.”