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The previous week has been a blur in Georgia Voll’s life. In the course of a renovation job for her Brisbane house and a spectacular Ladies’s Nationwide Cricket League marketing campaign for Queensland Fireplace, the very last thing the 21-year-old noticed coming was a call-up to the Ladies’s Premier League in India.
“My manager randomly called me and said, ‘Oh well, put the tools down and be ready,’” Voll informed Sportstar on the sidelines of the Lucknow leg of the league.
Travelling to India meant lacking the WNCL ultimate, which Queensland ultimately misplaced to New South Wales. It was a punch within the intestine to the Fireplace who had been already with out the companies of Jess Jonassen (Delhi Capitals) and Grace Harris (UPW).
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Voll introduced solidity up high with 301 runs within the season and a mean of 60 and a high rating of 98 within the six matches she performed. This alongside a promising run within the Ladies’s Large Bash League the place she swapped her long-time franchise Brisbane Warmth for Sydney Thunder. She amassed 330 runs in 10 video games with a powerful strike charge of 144.73. Thunder bowed out within the Challenger, falling to Voll’s outdated franchise – the Warmth – which superior to the ultimate.
Voll’s first taking part in alternative within the WPL would have come two days after the WNCL ultimate. Naturally then, Queensland did its greatest to discover a option to have her within the summit conflict.
“There was a bit to chat back and forth in terms of ‘Could I leave?’ I think there was a flight potentially on the Monday morning at 2am and they (her teammates) were all telling me to get on that. But in the end, it wasn’t my decision,” Voll recalled.
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Rugby roots
In a nation that has produced an meeting line of stylish gamers, Voll’s sport has copious quantities of brute power. One can hint that again to her rugby roots.
“Growing up in a country town (around Toowomba, around an hour and a half away from Brisbane), I was brought up to play sport. My dad was a rugby league player. Mum did a bit of everything. I dabbled in athletics too, with a bit of throwing with the discus, shot put and javelin.
Georgia Voll has debuted in all three international formats across the last two months, with her arrival in the Australian side just reward for her outstanding domestic form for Queensland and Sydney Thunder: https://t.co/GFBlYZXpG2#AusCricketAwardspic.twitter.com/LOjp1ZBlgc
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) February 3, 2025
“I actually started with netball, where there wasn’t enough contact. So I jumped across to where my brother was, playing rugby league. I stuck with that from when I was seven till I was about 16-17. However, there were no pathways for girls in rugby league and you had to stop around the age of 12. I needed to find another sport and I tried a lot of other things, cricket being among them.
“I advanced through athletics and cricket. Around the COVID-19 year, I landed a contract with Queensland and the Brisbane Heat. You can’t continue with contact sports when you have a cricket contract. So I made my choice.”
Inside the Queensland setup, Voll discovered an early idol and mentor in Beth Mooney, who she admits she was intimidated a lot by at first.
Georgia Voll with Beth Mooney
| Photograph Credit score:
Getty Photographs
Georgia Voll with Beth Mooney
| Photograph Credit score:
Getty Photographs
“The biggest influence would definitely be Moons. When I first moved down to Brisbane, she offered to throw me balls and I turned her down for a while. But she just kept asking. Her throwing me balls meant I’d have to do the same and I was terrified of her. Eventually, we would go to the gym and run together whenever we’re both in Brizzy.
“She’s very competitive and it keeps us both accountable. We push each other. She’s the influence I had coming through. Seeing how hard she works and what it takes to be the best at the highest level really spurred me on.”
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Quick learner
Voll’s first outing in India was UP Warriorz’s house sport towards Mooney’s Gujarat Giants. In essentially the most anticlimactic of debuts, Voll – who has imperiously taken the worldwide stage by storm with strong exhibits towards India and England – was dismissed for a two-ball duck by Deandra Dottin off a ball going into her stumps.
Mooney watched on from behind the stumps as Voll debuted within the WPL. Whereas the apprentice met with disappointment, she was taking notes aplenty from Mooney’s imperious unbeaten 96.
Voll tailored rapidly with a fluent fifty towards Mumbai Indians within the Warriorz’s subsequent fixture, albeit in a dropping trigger. Warriorz switched up the batting order, sending Harris and Voll – a pair that’s performed loads of cricket collectively in Australia – to open.
It’s not on a regular basis you see Harris being the extra demure of two batters. Voll took on Shabnim Ismail and Nat Sciver-Brunt head on and, barring the duvet and lengthy off area, accessed each different a part of the bottom with the 12 boundaries she struck.
With Voll placing at 166.66, UP Warriorz had been going at a wholesome nine-runs-an-over earlier than Sciver-Brunt angled one into her stumps. Voll, who had moved throughout to try to sweep was overwhelmed and her stumps lit up.
“I’ve noticed that it’s (the wicket in India compared to strips in Australia) a little bit slower and lower. The pitches in Australia are quite bouncy and fast. So you’ve got to play as straight as you can for a bit longer,” she stated after the sport.
Every part’s related
This could be Voll’s first journey to India, however it’s this very nation she took to the cleaners throughout a three-match ODI sequence in Brisbane and Perth final December. It was an initiation into the large leagues that ticked all of the bins.
Getting her debut cap from Mooney, scoring a century in simply her second sport, having her full household round (her mom was teary-eyed for many of it) on the venue she has performed most of her cricket till then – the Allan Border Discipline – it was all good.
Whereas she doesn’t have household travelling to observe her in India, Voll is aware of her people are protecting shut tabs on her run within the WPL, regardless of coping with a cyclonic storm.
“The sacrifices that they’ve made for me is why I’m here. My dad had a serious injury last year at work and overcoming that and all the pressure that comes with it wasn’t easy. My dad would throw me balls back in Toowomba when I didn’t have access coming down to Brisbane. If I take a step back and reflect, being able to debut for Australia and having them all be there was the biggest moment. They’ve had to put aside a lot of things for me. Either put me first or put family first and they’ve been incredibly selfless to do that. It has always been for them.”
Life can convey Voll again to India later this yr when the ODI World Cup comes calling. Whereas she is pondering extra about how one can palette spicy meals for the foreseeable future, being her explosive, unmovable self goes to make the Aussie setup rub its arms in glee because it units out to defend its 50-over crown.
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