Ashleigh Gardner

Her rise began in 2015. At Cricket Australia's under-18 Championships she scored more runs than anyone else in the competition, was named Player of the Series and helped New South Wales win the title. Gardner also made history around this time as the first Indigenous woman to be given the Lord Taverners Indigenous Player of the Year award, one of the notable honours in Australian cricket.

At senior domestic level she turned out for the NSW Breakers. Across five matches in the 2016-17 season she picked up nine wickets and added 98 runs. In the second edition of the Women's Big Bash League she was even more prolific for Sydney Sixers, finishing as the tournament's leading run-scorer with 414.

Those performances earned her a place in the national side. Gardner made both her One-Day International and Twenty20 International debuts for Australia, known as the Southern Stars, in a series against New Zealand early in 2017. Later that year she was an important part of Australia's World Cup campaign and of the team that won the Ashes.

Combining runs with useful wickets, Gardner established herself early on as one of the emerging talents in the Australian women's game.