Ellyse Perry: The World's Best Women's Cricketer and Australia's Dual International
Ellyse Perry's remarkable career as Australia's greatest women's cricketer — the only person to represent Australia in both cricket and football World Cups, her record batting average, and her role in Australia's sustained dominance of women's cricket.
Ellyse Perry is Australia's greatest women's cricketer and one of the most accomplished female athletes in Australian sporting history. She is the only person — male or female — to have represented Australia in both cricket and football (soccer) World Cups, having played for the Australian women's football team (Matildas) at the 2011 Women's World Cup while already an established international cricketer. She eventually chose cricket as her primary sport and became the dominant allrounder in women's cricket for the 2010s and early 2020s.
Batting Record: The Best Average in Women's Cricket
Perry's batting record in Women's ODI cricket is the best in history. She averages above 58 in Women's ODIs, a figure that places her ahead of any male ODI batter in the sport's history for sustained career average. Her technique — right-handed, classical, cover-drive dominant — combines orthodox technique with the ability to accelerate in the middle overs without compromising her wicket unnecessarily. She has scored multiple centuries against every significant women's cricket nation and has repeatedly batted Australia to victories from difficult positions.
Fast Bowling and Allrounder Status
Perry's bowling career began as the more prominent part of her game: she was Australia's fastest female bowler and consistently took wickets at the highest level before injuries reduced her bowling to more selective use later in her career. Her right-arm medium-fast bowling at 110-115 km/h — genuinely quick for women's cricket — combined with her batting quality made her the undisputed ICC Women's Allrounder of the Year multiple times. After a serious hamstring tear in 2019, she rebuilt her game with her batting increasingly dominant, and her bowling became more of a change option than a primary wicket-taking weapon.
Frequently asked questions
How has Perry's career evolved since her hamstring injury in 2019, and has she been as dominant as in her peak years?
Perry's hamstring tear in early 2019, sustained during the Women's Ashes, was the most significant setback of her career. She missed over a year of international cricket and when she returned, her bowling workload was significantly reduced as Cricket Australia and Perry herself managed the ongoing risk of re-injury. Her batting response to injury was remarkable: deprived of the option to contribute primarily as a bowler, she became even more dedicated to making her batting the definitive part of her game. The first full series she played after returning, in 2020-21, she scored at her career batting average or above. Her technical game had not deteriorated; if anything the extended period of batting focus while not bowling had refined her technique. The honest assessment of her post-2019 career is: as good a batter as before, a reduced bowling force. Her overall allrounder value decreased because two disciplines at 100% was more valuable than one discipline at 100% and one at 60%, but her batting alone makes her one of the most valuable players in Australian women's cricket. Where Perry's career has changed most is in her role within the team. The younger generation of Australian women's cricketers — Alyssa Healy, Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Annabel Sutherland — have grown into roles that mean Australia's success is no longer as concentrated on Perry as it was in the 2015-2019 period. She remains the senior batter and a crucial contributor, but the team is deeper and less Perry-dependent. This is a sign of successful development of the program rather than Perry's decline.