Perry’s evolution defined by reinvention as 350-game milestone beckons

When Ellyse Perry takes the field at Adelaide Oval for the third T20 against India on Saturday, she will become the first woman to play 350 international matches for Australia across all formats — another landmark in a career built on constant evolution.

After 19 years in international cricket, Perry’s journey has been anything but static. From a teenage fast bowler batting at No. 9 to a top-order mainstay who can anchor an innings without sending down a ball, her career has mirrored the growth of the women’s game itself.

“If you’re not changing and evolving, then you’re probably not going anywhere,” Perry said recently. “And I feel like that has been the biggest joy of my career.”

The 35-year-old is also on course to become the most-capped woman in international cricket by April, with only Harmanpreet Kaur and Suzie Bates currently ahead of her on the global appearances list.

Perry debuted in 2007 as a 16-year-old prodigy, balancing cricket with elite-level football. For much of her early career, she was primarily a new-ball bowler. As recently as the 2013 ODI World Cup in India, she regularly opened the bowling while batting as low as No. 9.

Twelve years on, at last year’s World Cup in the same country, Perry operated at No. 3, averaging 35 with the bat — and did not bowl a single delivery.

“I like not necessarily being the same person or the same player for extended periods of time,” she said. “I’ve loved doing both skills. I grew up playing club cricket batting and bowling. When I went to the nets with dad, I would always have a bat and a ball.

“All those different periods and opportunities to grow and change have been what’s made it so fulfilling and given me so much motivation.”

While Perry often highlights the rapid professionalisation and global expansion of women’s cricket, her own transformation has been more gradual. For the first 14 years of her international career, she was a frontline pace bowler. She remains Australia’s leading wicket-taker across formats with 331 dismissals.

Yet by late 2013, Perry had begun her shift up the order. Within a few years, she was entrenched at No. 3 and No. 4, even producing a double century in an Ashes Test. In T20 cricket, she reinvented herself again — lifting her strike rate above 130 in recent seasons after being dropped from the side in 2022.

Her early role as a bowler batting in the tail masked her credentials as a genuine allrounder. As a junior, Perry had thrived with both bat and ball, but entering the national team as a high-schooler meant biding her time lower down the order.

“I never found it weird. In some respects batting is probably a more mature skill set,” she said. “You have to learn so much about yourself and how you deal with yourself out there in the middle when you have that helmet on and it’s just you.

“You learn how you deal with all the thoughts and emotions that come with that, as well as the circumstance of the game.”

Asked whether there was a defining moment in her transition to top-order batter, Perry described it as a slow, almost imperceptible shift.

“I don’t think there is one specific moment,” she said. “It is almost this gradual creep where you feel like it. It’s not even a conscious shift. That just gets backed up by consistency and results, and you have a bit of a blueprint of who you are as a batter.”

Whether she will complete the full circle and return to a significant bowling role remains an open question. Perry has bowled just 33 overs in international cricket over the past two years and has not completed her full quota in a match since 2020.

Still, she has not closed the door on that chapter.

“I hope so,” Perry said of continuing to bowl at international level. “I still spend a lot of time working on that and bowling at training and trying to evolve and develop the way I do that.

“It’s always been the way I play cricket. I really enjoy both facets of the game. Until I stop playing it is something I always want to work on.”