Born 26th December 1986 in Box Hill, Victoria, the nineteenth Test captain of Australia, Rachael “Desi” Haynes.
Her debut for Victoria came in 2005/06 and in the ensuing seasons became a very reliable batter for Victoria along with her medium pace bowling. By 2009 she caught the eyes of the national selectors and made both her Test and ODI debuts in that year against England.
On 10th July 2009, Jodie Fields won the toss for Australia and chose to bat first at Worcester. It was Jodie’s first Test as captain. Family and friends in the crowd, so too Alan Border. When Rachael Haynes came in to bat, she and Fields were facing a scoreboard that said 5/28! Field’s debut as skipper and Haynes own debut looked like being a complete disaster.
Run by run, minute by minute they repelled the rampant Katherine Brunt (6-69) and created a record partnership of 229 runs to rescue Australia. Fields made 139 and got out at 6/257. Rachael batted on towards her century but fell agonisingly close when she was out for 98.
“We definitely broke the game down, 10 runs at a time. It really felt like we’d dug in and worked really hard for each other. It was one of the most satisfying partnerships I’ve been part of. It was awesome to be at the other end when Jodie got her hundred.”
They don’t play many Tests these days and Rachael has only figured in five. In November 2017 in the absence of Meg Lanning, Rachael became the nineteenth Test captain of Australia when she took charge during the Ashes campaign of that year.
Rachael has also captained Australia in both ODI and T20 formats. Her calm manner makes her a perfect fit. She captains like she bats: steady if need be but ready to change things up in a hurry if required. Across the three formats of that Ashes campaign in 2017, Rachael led Australia to victory.
In sixty ODIs, Rachael has amassed 1836 runs at 36.72 with a high score of 118. In seventy T20Is she has scored 761 runs with a high score of 69* and a strike rate of 118.72. In November 2020 Rachael led the Sydney Thunder to their second WBBL title.
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