Australia's Phoebe Litchfield wins ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2023

Young Australian women cricketer Phoebe Litchfield has been awarded the ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2023 Award. She was greeted with the honor for the kind of performances that she put for the team in all three formats of the game at the top of the order. 

Phoebe Litchfield along with Bangladesh’s  Marufa Akter, England’s Lauren Bell, and Scotland all-rounder Darcey Carter were the four nominees for the ICC Women’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year 2023 Award. However, the Australian cricketer pipped everyone to claim the trophy. 

Phoebe Litchfield kickstarted the Year with the rollicking performances against Pakistan in ODIs. She smashed two consecutive unbeaten half-centuries and made a strong statement. However, it was a heartbreak for her as well as he missed out on the squad for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. 

However, her comeback was even greater than her setback. Phoebe Litchfield then made a rousing statement as she slammed her maiden career century when she hit an unbeaten 106 runs against Ireland in Dublin. If this was not enough, she then proved her prowess in the T20Is as well. 

The batter slammed a brutal half-century against West Indies and ended with unbeaten innings of 52 from just 19 balls, in what was her first T20I contest of the year in October. Phoebe Litchfield slammed five sixes in her innings and put her team in a dominating position. 

In the ODI series against West Indies, she was decent as she played a match-winning innings of 27 in the third ODI against the Caribbean side that helped the team to claim the victory in Melbourne. She then ended the year on high after her staggering performances against India. 

After not having great outings in the Test match, Phoebe Litchfield set the stage on fire in the ODI series. In the first game, she racked up 78 runs and then followed it up with 63 runs. Her two knocks helped Australia win the series in the first two games itself. 

ICC Picks Phoebe Litchfield’s Ton Against Ireland As Her Memorable Performance

The International Cricket Council (ICC) picked Phoebe Litchfield’s century against Ireland in Dublin as her memorable performance of the year. Coming into the match, the 20-year-old batter was under a lot of pressure as he had bagged three single-figure scores. 

But she shone under pressure and made sure that she spent time at the crease and blasted a magnificent century. She along with Annabella Sutherland (109) played sensationally well and powered her team to a big win in the match. 

She recently spoke about her and stated that 2023 was a big learning curve for him and there were a lot of challenges as well. Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, she said: 

“It’s been a challenge, to put it frankly. I think the Ashes was a really big learning curve for me and then to score runs in Ireland was enjoyable, but yeah, I think Indian conditions is a whole different beast. It’s a really good challenge, but also enjoyable,” she concluded.

Overall she scored, 87 runs in Test at 21.75, 334 in ODIs at an average of 49.14 and 88 T20I runs at an average of 88.