Interview | Personal accolades are great, but team success drives me the most: Ashleigh Gardner

Ashleigh Gardner, a premier all-rounder in women's cricket, leads Gujarat Giants in the Women's Premier League with stellar performances.

Ashleigh Gardner has many traits on the cricket field worthy of admiration. She is one of the premier all-rounders in the women’s game, and tends to step up for Australia on the big occasions. She is a menacing middle-order batter capable of taking the game away from the opposition with her shot-making. She is also an off-spinner of repute, always having a wicket or two up her sleeve.

In the third edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), the 27-year-old from Sydney is also the captain of Gujarat Giants and entrusted with the task of reviving the team after it finished bottom in 2023 and 2024. She is leading from the front in this pursuit, her tally of 213 runs in six matches, including three fifties, coming at a blistering strike rate of 165.11. In an interview with The Hindu on Tuesday, Gardner spoke about leading the franchise, her form and why New Zealand’s triumph in last year’s T20 World Cup is good for the women’s game. Excerpts:

Yeah, playing in India is obviously going to be very different to what most internationals are used to. But fortunately for me, playing in my third edition of the WPL, but also touring here a lot for Australia, I’ve got used to the conditions. Obviously, in T20 cricket, they’re going to be pretty conducive for batting.

But in this edition of the WPL, there’s been a little bit in it for the bowlers as well, which has been exciting because normally it’s always one-sided. So it keeps everyone interested. I think the way that the WPL has been this year, it’s probably been the most even it’s been in all of the editions that have happened. So yeah, it’s been really exciting to be involved in it.

Yeah, I think the league is obviously really good. There’s plenty of great domestic talent. I think that’s probably the area that’s going to keep improving. We’re seeing players from each team create a name for themselves. It’s exciting to see those young players really shine on the biggest stage.

Once the development of those domestic players keeps improving, we’ll see it be one of the best franchise leagues in the world. Not being biased, but I think Australia is kind of leading the way still just because of the domestic set-up that we’ve got.

The first two WPL seasons probably didn’t go the way we would have planned. I think we had some fantastic players within the set-up. But I think looking at the players that we have this time around, it just has a different feel about it. Whether that comes back from the staff that we’ve got here and just the environment that we’ve tried to create.