SportNewsAfrica

Anesu Mushangwe will remain with the Adelaide Strikers. The Australian club confirmed on Monday 19 October that the 30-year-old Zimbabwean bowler has re-signed for the twelfth edition of the Women’s Big Bash League, Australia’s women’s T20 cricket championship. The Strikers are due back in action on 31 October against the Melbourne Stars.

The new contract follows a steady rise. Based in Australia since 2019, Mushangwe first made her name in local competitions with Glenelg. In the 2021-2022 season, she finished as her club’s leading wicket-taker in both the top-flight and T20 competitions, before stepping up to the highest national level.

Her arrival in the WBBL in 2022 made her the first Zimbabwean player to feature in the competition. That milestone was historic, but she now offers far more than being a trailblazer. She played in every match of Adelaide’s victorious 2023 campaign, which ended with a second successive title for the Strikers.

That season, Mushangwe took 16 wickets and conceded an average of 6.47 runs per over. Both figures reflect what Adelaide look for: taking wickets while restricting the rate at which the opposition scores. That dual role is why her return matters.

The Zimbabwean is a right-arm leg-spinner. She has also built up international experience, taking 33 wickets in 21 T20 internationals for Zimbabwe. In Australia, she has also played for the ACT Meteors, signing a state championship contract with them in 2024.

The extension underlines the continuity of a player already embedded in Adelaide’s plans. The Strikers’ first scheduled match is a home game against the Melbourne Stars at Karen Rolton Oval on Saturday 31 October, giving Zimbabwe another presence in one of women’s cricket’s top leagues.