Phoebe Turner believes the ongoing Northern Diamonds pre-season tour of Mumbai will be invaluable for her to lay the platform for a positive summer.
The emerging all-rounder, 20, scored one fifty and claimed a best of 3-18 with her seamers in all cricket for the Diamonds in 2023, including friendlies, saying: “Overall, I was happy with the season.
“There were things I was down on with my batting at the start of last season. Things didn’t go how I wanted them to go. But in cricket, you’re going to go through more lows than you are highs.
“I was really happy that my bowling kicked on at the back end, and I think I bowled well and took some key wickets.
“It wasn’t my best season by any stretch, but I know that I am improving.”
The Diamonds arrived in India on Saturday and tomorrow face the Central Sparks in a T20 friendly.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Phoebe Turner in action for the Diamonds.
“We’ve all been dying to get on grass,” continued Turner.
“We want to win against Sparks, they will against us too. But it’s going to be a great learning experience more than anything else. We can’t wait to get started.
“Batting against spin is one of my big aims for this season. If I’m going to be coming in in that middle order, that’s when most spin is bowled. So this trip is great for that. I’m desperate to make use of it.”
Turner, who played only a couple of friendlies in 2021, has played regularly in the last two seasons for the Diamonds. But given her best performances with bat and ball came last summer, you could describe it as her breakthrough summer.
“This winter I’ve really nailed down my basics, and in the scenario based nets I’ve been doing really well,” she said. “Having had that time to work on the basics before Christmas has been really useful.
“I want to be that all-rounder who can control the middle order and then with the ball take those crucial wickets or be the one building the crucial dots at one end so whoever it is can get the wickets on the back of that at the other.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Phoebe Turner is hoping to continue last season’s late form with the ball.
“The more strings to my bow I can have the better. Hopefully, I can show that on this trip and then kick on when the season starts.”
Around the time she made her competitive debut for the Diamonds in a Charlotte Edwards Cup T20 win at the start of 2022 – a win against the old Lightning team at Loughborough, former Academy coach Courtney Winfield-Hill spoke about Turner’s fearless approach to her cricket.
To paraphrase, Winfield-Hill was delighted by Turner’s happiness to come in and take the game on immediately, whether it be through power or innovation.
Turner, agrees: “When I’m fearless, that’s when I’m at my best,” she said, before adding:
“Confidence is a big thing in cricket, because it’s as much mental as it is technical – if not more so.
“I have all these tools in my tool box, but it’s just about using them when the time is right. It’s just being that bit smarter.”
