Tammy Beaumont

After a series of strong performances for Kent, including her maiden century in 2009 and a successful period as wicketkeeper, Tammy Beaumont was called into the England squad for a tour of the West Indies, taking over the gloves from Sarah Taylor. She was only 18 when she made her ODI and T20I debuts, and combined international duty with a degree in chemistry and sports science at Loughborough University. After relinquishing the gloves to concentrate on her batting, she struggled to make an impact at international level despite her prolific run-scoring for Kent and was granted a professional contract in 2014.

Successful tours as captain of the England Women's Academy to Sri Lanka and the UAE earned her selection as an opener for the 2016 T20 World Cup, where she blossomed, scoring a total of 138 runs and picking up Player of the Match in England's group-stage victory over West Indies. A phenomenal summer against Pakistan followed as she struck 484 runs across the ODI and T20I series, including her debut international century, and cemented her place.

Beaumont was Player of the Tournament when England won the 2017 World Cup and scored Test and ODI fifties during the subsequent drawn Ashes series in which Australia retained the trophy. She backed up twin ODI hundreds during South Africa's tour of 2018 with a maiden T20I century, off just 47 balls.

Almost five years to the day later, during the home Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, Beaumont became just the second woman behind Heather Knight to score a century in all three formats, but she didn't stop there. Her first-innings 208 smashed Betty Snowball's 88-year-old record of 189 as the highest Test score by an England woman, making her the first Englishwoman and eighth woman in history to score a Test double-century.

There had been turmoil in the meantime, however. Beaumont's omission from England's T20I squad after the 2022 Ashes not only ruled her out of a home Commonwealth Games but lasted for two years. Her position on the fringes of selection in the shortest international format persists, despite becoming the first woman to score a century in the Hundred, off 52 balls. She remains pivotal to England's ODI top order.