Phoebe Litchfield was 16 when she watched, from the non-striker’s end, Brian Lara loft Andrew Symonds for a six over covers. In that charity match, the Bushfire Cricket Bash, at Melbourne in 2020, the left-hander also batted with Ricky Ponting.

Her teammates also included Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Wasim Akram, Brett Lee and Nathan Lyon. She got to meet Sachin Tendulkar, too. The little maestro was the coach of her side, the Ricky Ponting XI.

Litchfield would later say it was the best day of her life. She also said she felt so surreal that she had felt as if she was an imposter. She hadn’t played for Australia yet. But it was always going to be only a question of when, not if.

Litchfield had been recognised as a future star for Australian women’s cricket from a young age. She hasn’t

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