Beth Mooney: One of the best in the world, by design

THERE are not many players quite like Beth Mooney in women's cricket.

- KALYANI MANGALE

One cannot put her in a box. Since the start of her career in early 2016, she has done what was required for Australia. Whether it was opening the batting with fellow left-hander Nicole Bolton at the start of her career in ODIs or dropping down the order once Australia decided to give Alyssa Healy a go at opening after the 2017 World Cup, Mooney has done it all. However, whatever role she has been asked to do, with the bat, in the field, or even behind the stumps, Mooney has excelled in that only she could.

Maybe it has all been by design and not just something that happened over time. Kirby Short, one of Mooney's close friends and her captain at Queensland Fire and Brisbane Heat, knows this better than anyone else. She remembers meeting the teenager walking into the Queensland setup. "The first time I met Beth, she was a teenager who had been brought into the QLD Fire set up by our coach, Andy Richards," she told this daily.