Cricket: Six to watch in the Women's T20 World Cup

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As the ten teams prepare for the start of the 2024 T20 Women's World Cup, AFP Sport looks at six players leading the way in their team's hopes of lifting the trophy on October 20.

The veteran opener from Australia is at the top of the ICC rankings of T20 batters ahead of the World Cup and the six-time champions will once again rely on her if she tops the rankings. A key member of the teams that won the last three editions of the T20 World Cup, Mooney was named 'Player of the Series' in 2020 after hitting an unbeaten 78 in the final as the Aussies defeated India. After smashing 50 off 30 balls in the warm-up win over England in Dubai, there is every reason to think the 30-year-old is ready to add to her two T20I hundreds.

The 25-year-old left-arm spinner from Cheshire made her international debut eight years ago. She is now the highest-ranked bowler in the ICC's T20 and ODI rankings and in June she became the youngest bowler to take 100 ODI wickets. At almost six feet tall, Ecclestone brings accuracy, economy and guile to attack, making her a key weapon for skipper Heather Knight. “I love leading her,” Knight says. “The control she gives you as a captain and the attacking threat she gives you on both sides is really cool.”

Deepti Sharma is infamous to some for her controversial 'Mankad' dismissal of England's Charlie Dean in an ODI two years ago, but is more widely celebrated for the all-round excellence of her game. The 27-year-old, who bats left-handed and bowls right-arm off-spin, is ranked second among T20 bowlers worldwide and the third best all-rounder. India have never won a Women's World Cup and Sharma believes a win in the UAE could change the sport at home: “If we win the World Cup, things will really change from every perspective and every woman will want to play cricket after that, so I”I hope for the best,” she told Cricinfo.

A year after leading South Africa to their first-ever white-ball final, Sune Luus is in the ranks in the UAE as a batsman who also bowls off-spin, after switching from leggies. The 28-year-old had a terrible white-ball series against Sri Lanka earlier this year, making just 22 runs in the T20Is and 43 in the ODIs, but bounced back with 65 and 109 in a losing cause in a one-off Test in Chennai. , then with 53 not out in a T20I against Pakistan in Multan in a three-match series, where her strike rate was 136. “You always want to score and contribute,” she said. “But I think before the World Cup, those performances alone gave me confidence that you can still hit the ball.”

Vishmi Gunaratne is still just 19 and is a great player in the making. So far, the young opener's figures since she burst onto the senior international scene at the age of 16 don't match the very best – in 43 T20Is she has averaged 20, with a strike rate of 92, with three fifties. However, she does have an ODI hundred to her name. The fact that she played against Ireland in Belfast last month, a week before her birthday – becoming only the second Sri Lankan after experienced skipper Chamari Athapaththu to hit a ton – suggests she is in form at the right time. Perhaps this is the tournament where Gunaratne shows the full potential that was so evident when she hit a 128-ball 417 in an under-19 women's tournament in Sri Lanka two years ago.

As an 18-year-old, Hayley Matthews got an early taste of her talent, clubbing 66 off 45 balls as the West Indies chased down 149 to hold off the Australian juggernaut and win the 2016 T20 World Cup. Unsurprisingly, she was named Player of the Match, with the game acting as a springboard for a career that has seen her play franchise cricket around the world. In 96 T20Is, the West Indian captain has averaged 25 with two centuries with the bat (at a strike rate of 112) and has taken 99 wickets with her off-spin. Now 26, Matthews is under no illusions about the task ahead: “We're going in as underdogs again and there's no doubt about that,” she said.