It’s good to be back for the Women’s Ashes after such a life-changing experience

Getting ready for the start of the Women’s Ashes, it feels strange that the last time I played for Australia was April 2021. It’s by far the longest break I’ve had. It went quickly, but now that I’m back it feels like forever. In the meantime I had other things to think about.

Last August, my partner Jess had our daughter Rylee by C-section 11 weeks premature. We were told at 24 weeks that she could come any day. It was frightening. We had an obstetrician and a paediatrician who were amazing, who kept reassuring us that with today’s technology, 28 weeks was going to be alright.

For the first five days Jess was in hospital too, and I would stay there until they kicked me out. Once she was home we settled into a routine of Rylee’s care. They were long days. It was a strange perk to get from cricket, but the Women’s and Children’s Hospital is across from Adelaide Oval, so it helped that we got free parking. I feel for the nurses – they don’t get looked after, so in their breaks they have to go outside and move their cars.

I would do gym and go back to the hospital, do some running and go back, then we would go home and sleep and repeat the whole thing again. Spending nights without knowing, calling up as soon as we woke up to see how she was. It’s the strangest feeling knowing that you’ve got a child that you can’t take home with you. She was in hospital for 53 days, then 10 days on the early discharge program. But we’ve been lucky. She’s been a healthy bub from the start, she just needed to put on a lot of weight and grow.

As for Jess, there is nothing worse than seeing the person you love in pain. That was harder than I thought. I could see how much she wanted to be lifting Rylee. They’re so overworked in the hospital