Five days after Lucy Hamilton received her maiden international cap from Alyssa Healy, she has become perhaps the last ‘victim’ of the retiring Australian captain’s trademark hair rub celebrations generally reserved for bowlers taking their maiden wicket.
While the 19-year-old was relieved to have “got the monkey off the back” by starting her international wickets counter, there aren’t many bigger scalps she could have asked for to be her first than that of Indian run-machine Smriti Mandhana.
Hamilton wasted no time in showing why she has been earmarked for great success throughout her young career by castling the left-hander with a full delivery in her third over at the WACA Ground to land Australia’s first wicket of the Test.
Moments later, her hair tie had come off as teammates got around the Test debutant to celebrate what would be the first of her three wickets on her first day in the whites.
“Smriti is a really high-quality player, and it was nice to get my first wicket,” Hamilton beamed after the day’s play.
“Obviously, in the ODI, I didn’t get a wicket, so it was nice to get that and kind of the monkey off the back.
“Then it just kept rolling on from there.”
Hamilton’s talent had begun to be recognised six years before her international bow when the Bundaberg product was awarded the Jodie Purves Young Cricketer Development Scholarship by the former Australian captain at the age of 14, ahead of making her senior Queensland debut at 15.
By the time she was chosen to lead Australia at the ICC Under-19 Women’s World Cup in 2025, she already boasted of a WBBL five-wicket haul for Brisbane Heat.
When she was named the WBBL|11 Young Gun in December, anticipation around her potential call-up for this Test had already started.
Around the same time, the left-armer’s potential was also beginning to be recognised at a global level when she was a surprise signing for Delhi Capitals for this year’s Women’s Premier League (WPL). While she didn’t take a wicket in her two matches, she smashed 36 from 19 balls with three sixes on WPL debut and left a lasting impression on her Delhi skipper Jemimah Rodrigues.
Rodrigues, who became Hamilton’s second victim at the WACA on Friday, was all praise for the youngster and compared her to Annabel Sutherland, who has emerged as one of the world’s top allrounders in recent years.
“She gives me similar vibes to Sutherland, just a younger version,” Rodrigues said.
“Even when I saw her in DC, and she played her first game in front of such big crowd, which she’s never played before, she was not fazed by anything.
“She just was very clear on what she had to do, and went out there, executed and even contributed with the bat.”
When she was a young fan, Hamilton received a pair of gloves from Beth Mooney. On Friday, the ‘keeper-batter presented her with her Baggy Green.
Also playing alongside her in the Test is her childhood hero Ellyse Perry. She said the Aussie group has helped her embrace the step up to international level.
“The team is so supportive that even going out to the ground, I think that’s why I’m a lot less nervous,” Hamilton said.
“Just knowing that they all back me and support me on and off the field, and then hearing the speech from Beth Mooney, it just links everything together (with) how nice this team is to be a part of.”
Hamilton was one of the four fast bowlers who made their Test debuts on Friday. The other three were India’s Sayali Satghare, Kranti Gaud and Kashvee Gautam.
After the Australians had bowled out India at the start of the third session, Satghare mirrored Hamilton’s achievement from earlier in the day, bowling a stunning delivery that got significant movement and took out Georgia Voll’s leg stump.
Rodrigues was impressed with the debutant trio’s maiden outing after they bowled all but one over in the second innings.
“I know the conditions can help, but you still got to hit the right line and lengths,” she said.
“It’s a very inexperienced squad, but at the same time, they have a lot of fire and determination while playing, and they just want to win.
“They just want to take it on. So, I love seeing that attitude that they have.”
NRMA Insurance Australia v India Multi-Format Series
Australia lead the multi-format series 8-4
February 15: First T20: India won by 21 runs (DLS)
February 19: Second T20: Australia won by 19 runs
February 21: Third T20: India won by 17 runs
February 24: First ODI: Australia won by six wickets
February 27: Second ODI: Australia won by five wickets
March 1: Third ODI: Australia won by 185 runs
Australia Test squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Darcie Brown, Maitlan Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Lucy Hamilton, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Rachel Trenaman, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham
India Test squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Amanjot Kaur, Uma Chetry, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Kranti Gaud, Vaishnavi Sharma, Sayali Satghare
March 6-9: Test match, WACA Ground, 4:20pm AEDT (D/N)
