Nat Sciver-Brunt, arguably the best all-rounder in the women’s game, has a surprising admission. One that is in stark contrast to the calm demeanour she embodies on and off the field.
No nerves were evident when she scored the fastest century in women’s Test cricket at the end of last year, nor when she struck a century in the 2022 World Cup final. In conversations with her England team-mates both past and present, one word is always used to describe her: “Calm”.
Yet, speaking to Telegraph Sport from her hotel room in Australia, where she is playing in the Women’s Ashes, she confesses: “I still get nervous every time I go out to bat, whether there’s one person watching or a big crowd.
“I’m pretty level in general and don’t get too up or too down in life. I guess part of it will be a bit of persona. Maybe at the start, I was trying to put on a bit of a facade that my body language was showing that I was there and ready to take you on.
“But I don’t think about that too much now, just try to focus on myself and get myself into a good head space to be able to start my innings and then continue on after that if I get through that period.”
Sciver-Brunt – who, as the daughter of an ambassador, was born in Tokyo and grew up in Poland and then the Netherlands, where she first encountered cricket – hopes the calmness that is evident on the field will aid her in the next period in her life.
‘The next stage will be different’
In September, she and wife Katherine, a former England cricketer, announced in a joint Instagram post that they were expecting a baby. The news came after she had spoken about freezing her own eggs ahead of the international summer in 2024, sparking conversations around fertility and motherhood in the England dressing room.
Katherine retired from international cricket in May 2023 and has since taken up a position in the commentary box, but will depart from Australia during the T20 stage of the Ashes as she nears her due date.
When asked about forthcoming motherhood, Sciver-Brunt is aware of how life will change: “[The pregnancy] is going pretty well. I’m a bit apprehensive, I guess. The next stage will be different.”
No England player has walked onto the field as both a professional cricketer and a mother, but that will change this year.
“I’m imagining it’s going to be pretty tricky and we’re going to have to work out quickly how to adapt,” Sciver-Brunt says. “I’m pretty flexible and adaptable and pretty level, so I’m hoping that it won’t be too big of a stress. But, obviously, there are so many things – even when the baby’s born – that could distract you, so we’ll see what happens.”
Personal changes have had a remarkably positive impact on Sciver-Brunt’s career. In 2022, she stepped back from cricket to prioritise her mental health, focused on domestic life and opted out of the home series against India. But when she returned to the fold, she produced a record-breaking 2023, and was named Wisden’s leading female cricketer of the year.
Since marriage, her average in one-day international cricket has risen from 45.86 to 62.75, in T20s from 28.90 to 39.46 and in Test matches from 47.88 to 78.50, but how motherhood will affect her cricket remains to be seen.
Before that, though, there is the challenge of trying to regain the Ashes in Australia for the first time in a decade, with Sciver-Brunt’s form crucial to the tourists’ hopes of success.
‘It’s being able to deliver in the moment’
Since Charlotte Edwards and England won the 2013-14 Ashes, Australia have dominated the women’s cricketing landscape. Over the past 11 years they have won a Cricket World Cup, three T20 World Cups, three Ashes and even Commonwealth Games gold. In contrast, England have a solitary 2017 World Cup win.
Central contracts for female players were introduced for the first time by the England and Wales Cricket board a year after that last Ashes win, and their current deals are still substantially lower than those in Australia. There are signs that the tide has begun to turn on the pitch, though. England ended Australia’s unbeaten decade in bilateral series in 50-over cricket in 2023, and both sides crashed out of last year’s T20 World Cup early.
Sciver-Brunt expects England to call upon that experience of failure when the pressure is on, which it certainly is now after England lost the first two ODIs of this series.
Asked what the key to beating Australia is, Sciver-Brunt says: “Drawing on the experiences we’ve had from the T20 World Cup and wanting to put a line in the sand after that, and the work we’ve done together as a group about coming together in the pressure moments. Being able to deliver in the moment when the pressure is on and helping out your mate will be the big test.
“The series is not just an ODI series, it’s not just a T20 and not just a Test match, it’s relentless for three to four weeks. Being able to keep turning up to each match with a positive attitude and being up for the fight will be as hard as physically getting up for a game.”
Of Test cricket, she adds: “It’s a gruelling four days and mentally very fatiguing, but it’s a privilege to be able to play.”
The conclusion of the series will be the day-night pink ball Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a far cry from Sciver-Brunt’s debut. That was in 2013 when, having progressed through Surrey’s academy at Epsom College, she played against Pakistan at Louth, in Lincolnshire, near the east coast of England – a ground not even used for minor counties cricket.
Regardless of whether the 100,000-capacity MCG is full, you can be sure Sciver-Brunt will have that intriguing cocktail of both nerves and calmness.
Why Nat Sciver-Brunt is so important for England
Nat Sciver-Brunt has been hailed as the best all-rounder in the world, but what makes her so good? Telegraph Sport gets the viewpoint from the dressing room and the commentary box…
Charlie Dean, England spin-bowler
“Nat brings a sense of calmness to the group. She’s really level-headed and she brings a different view on how cricket gets played and almost brings us back to logic a little bit. She leads from the front in the way that she plays her cricket and she has done for the past five years. Every time you take to the pitch with Nat, you are in awe of her a little bit because of the way that she goes about the game.
“She’s a really good team-mate and she’s always there if you need to chat or have a couple of questions about something that you don’t know about because she’s been around for such a long time.
“Whenever there’s a field that maybe exposes one of her strengths, we’re like, ‘She’s going to pull it off the back foot here’. It’s like trying to predict what she’s going to do next and then she plays a reverse sweep or something. She’s someone that you love to watch bat and she always has an impact on the games. When she does well we’re in a good place in the game.”
Michael Vaughan, former England captain and Telegraph Sport columnist
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a men’s or a women’s team, to win in Australia you’ve got to have your best players playing well. There are many, in Sophie Ecclestone, Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont – but you look at Nat Sciver-Brunt and she’s the world-class performer who could do something special to help England win the Ashes.
“And I think she’ll have to produce some magic for them to get that trophy in their hands. I can’t see them winning unless Nat does something special. She’s that good a player, she’s right up there with the best of any of the women playing at the minute and Australia fear her.
“We all know in sport that when you’ve got pivotal players and world-class performers, the opposition fear them because they’re that good they can almost win games on their own. The fact that she’s bowling as well and bowling nicely, she is probably the most sought-after all-rounder in the world, so England have got a gem in their team.”
Alex Hartley, former England spinner and commentator
“She’s so calm, she comes across as somebody who has everything in control. I guess her cricket explains that: she is in control. As a character, she’s fun, she likes to have a laugh, but when you get on the pitch, she’s so switched on she knows exactly what she has to do, she has those conversations with you.
“I think there’s pressure on Nat because when Nat scores 50-plus, England win 80 per cent of their games. She is so good they’re going to win more games when Nat succeeds. She is going to be such an important wicket for Australia to get. Once you get the best all-rounder in the world out, you are going to feel like you’ve got a sniff.
“I’ve bowled against her so much in the nets and in domestic cricket, but she plays in a way that not very many people do in women’s cricket. She likes to play off the back foot so you almost bowl slightly fuller, but then she goes on the front foot and hits you down the ground. She is one of the hardest people in the world to bowl at, and you’ve got to be on your game from ball one.”
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