Having missed out on the WPL last year despite a stellar run in international cricket, the UP Warriorz batter is determined to make it count this year
Shashank Kishore21-Feb-2024You can see Danni Wyatt inject energy into the UP Warriorz team room as she walks in for their media day. After exchanging pleasantries with her team-mates and a few media personnel, her gaze turns to a pocket diary on the table as she sits down for our chat. In it are keywords that provide cues to help steer our conversation.”It’s a good habit, eh?” Wyatt asks, pointing to the diary. “I still maintain a journal. It’s a habit I’m incredibly proud of and have continued to keep after all these years.”At this time last year, she had written about being “embarrassed and heartbroken” after failing to attract a single bid at the WPL auction ahead of the inaugural edition. The one word on her mind this time around is “gratitude.”Related
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“It wasn’t a good feeling last year,” she says. “We were in South Africa for the T20 World Cup. We were in the same hotel as the Indian team and they were screaming. They were all watching on a projector and there were loud cheers and high fives every time someone got picked.”We were just leaving the hotel and en route to the ground for a game against Ireland. I was on the team bus, so I wasn’t watching when my name came up. Suddenly I get a series of messages from my friends over in the UK to say, ‘You’ve not been picked.'”I was just a bit embarrassed. I had got my hopes up a lot, which I shouldn’t have done in hindsight. I’d done well in international cricket. I’d been part of BCCI’s Women’s T20 Challenge in India prior to that. I was confident of being picked. But to not get a single bid was pretty heartbreaking.”A year on from that disappointment, Wyatt is in a better state of mind. There’s a relaxed vibe to her after she had the chance to spend “more than usual” time with her family. In October, she withdrew from the WBBL, saying she was fatigued. Wyatt says she is over that phase now.Wyatt was Player of the Series in the 2023 Women’s Ashes, with 272 runs•Steve Bardens/ECB/Getty ImagesThis is her second trip to India in two months. In December, she was part of England’s squad for the Test and T20I series. Back then, a day before the auction, she struck a fierce 75 to flatten India at the Wankhede Stadium.”I was trying to be in a headspace where I was only focused on doing well for England,” she says. “It was difficult [to keep the WPL distraction away], and I must admit, as the auction drew nearer, I got increasingly nervous. I’d done well in the match before [the auction], but I was clear about one thing: I wasn’t going to let another possible disappointment chew me.”I thought, if it happens, great. If it doesn’t, it’s not meant to be. There’s more to life. I was at the gym when the auction started, and by the time my name came up, I was back in my room. When the Warriorz raised the paddle, I must admit it felt wonderful, a lot different to last year.”Wyatt says rejection is something she says she had been lucky to avoid for a better part of her journey into professional cricket.”I got into the England academy setup as a 15-year-old, made my international debut at 18. Over the years, I guess I was lucky enough to perform in front of the right people at the right time. Everything just happened, and one thing synced into another.”This is her 15th year in international cricket, and looking back now, she can see the moments that have led her to where she is now. “It was in the middle of 2017,” she says of a turning point. “I’d decided enough was enough. I was happy just being a pinch-hitter, you know. I was happy just being part of the XI. I knew something had to change.”Over the years, I guess I was lucky enough to perform in front of the right people at the right time. Everything just happened, and one thing synced into another”•Ashley Allen/ECB/Getty Images”Until then, I didn’t quite care as much about my cricket as I should have. But losing my grandfather, a massive personal loss at the time, just before the Ashes that year, made me look at things in a different light. That’s the moment when I decided I had to change.””I mean, I opened the bowling with some spin. I hadn’t rated my batting at all. There was no confidence to bat long. But that changed mindset and attitude brought about a different approach. I knew I had to be the main character, not a part-timer who could do a bit of this and a bit of that.”I sat out of the Tests, didn’t play in the one-dayers either. But in the third T20I, I grabbed my chance and scored a century, I think off 58-59 balls [57]. That I was able to finally show the world what I could do was a take-off point. I’d like to think I haven’t looked back since.”Wyatt, like so many in England, was captivated by the game in 2005. She can’t remember every game she may have played in but her memories of that year’s historic Ashes series are sharp. She was in the stands with her dad to watch the cliffhanger of a Test at Edgbaston. Her love affair with cricket began there.Nearly two decades later, she reflects on how it had a transformative effect on her career. “Just like what Bazball is doing to many these days, it was absolutely inspirational,” Wyatt says. “It’s amazing what the guys have been able to do to Test cricket over the last two years.”They’ve taken the game to the next level. It’s entertaining, inspirational, they’ve got the entire country talking about it. Surely they’re doing a lot of things right. It’s similar to the way we [England women] play. Jon Lewis [England women and Warriorz head coach] wants us playing fearlessly. It kind of suits my style; that’s when I’m playing at my best. Seeing ball, hitting ball. Pretty cool.”
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Wyatt is chatty, slipping in and out of being reflective. The weather – bright and sunny for early February – she says made her so eager to come over that she arrived much earlier than planned, just to be able to “soak it all in” before the tournament starts.Just as she gets warmed up, there’s an interruption. A shoot for an advertisement is waiting. It means our chat has to be cut short abruptly. The media coordinator suggests she still has two minutes to wrap up the interview.I ask Wyatt how she de-stresses.”I watch lots of movies,” she says. “I don’t like thinking cricket all the time. I want to be out of that bubble. I recently got engaged, I’m getting married in August, so there’s a fair bit going on (). I like to FaceTime my friends and family back home to chat about what’s going on.”And what is the one thing she’s looking forward to at the WPL?”Just the experience,” she says. “I want to live every single moment. Who knows, maybe I’ll never play it again. So I just want to have lot of fun. And enjoy the tournament.”