Sophie Molineux

She built her reputation in junior cricket before stepping up to the Victoria side in 2016. That first season went well, and in 2017 she became the first winner of the Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year Award. Her first taste of T20 cricket had already come with the Melbourne Renegades during the opening WBBL season of 2015-16, and the competition became the platform for her rise. In the third WBBL season she was given the Young Gun Award after making 318 runs and claiming 6 wickets at an economy rate of 6.39. The following season was better still: 354 runs and 16 wickets earned her the Most Valuable Player award.

Those displays led to a place in the Australian squad for the 2018 tour of India, where she played her first T20 International. Her ODI debut followed a few months later against Pakistan. Later in 2018 she was an important member of the Australian team that won the Women's World T20. A dislocated shoulder threatened her 2019, but she was fit in time to play her first Test, against England. In 2020 she was again in the squad when Australia retained the Women's World T20 title in front of home crowds.

Her reliability has also made her sought after in franchise cricket. She has been signed by the Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred and by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the WPL, and she was a key figure when RCB won their first WPL title in 2024.