WATCH: Ash Barty Returns to Playing Cricket Before Australian Open 2021

Apart from tennis, World No.1 Ash Barty is an avid cricket fan. Interestingly, she is a former cricketer as well. She has tried her hands at Australia’s premier cricket league, the Big Bash. And even now she doesn’t reject a chance of holding the cricket bat and ball again.

Ash Barty is getting ready for the Australian Open 2021 and being an Australian, she avoided the mandatory quarantine that the international players served. She obviously practiced tennis, but also played a little of cricket.

She recently posted a story from Adelaide where she played the tennis exhibition event, ‘A Day at the Drive’. But between all the tennis practice and matches, she got a chance to return to cricket.

Ash Barty and her short cricket career

Barty has a significant cricket history on her CV. Back in 2014, aged 18, Barty took an indefinite hiatus from tennis. Barty switched to cricket as a prospect of team sport excited her.

In 2015, she impressed cricket coaches in her first-ever cricket practice session. Thus she played in a local league in Brisbane as an all-rounder. She was a handy bowler and a great batsman and ended as the top scorer of her victorious team.

Later, she played in the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League. She had a bad tournament and her team, Brisbane Heats, also didn’t perform well. This was the end of Barty’s cricket adventure, and in 2016 she returned to tennis.

Now looking from 2016 to 2021, Barty has won a Grand Slam, WTA Finals, and other tournaments. She has been the World No.1 since 2019, becoming one of the few players to end two consecutive years as the World No.1.

Now Barty will return from her second-longest hiatus from tennis. She last played a professional tennis match on the 28th of February 2020. Since then, because of the pandemic, Barty has refrained from traveling, thus missing important tournaments like the US Open 2020 and French Open 2020.

Barty will now return to play her first WTA event in 11 months at the Yarra Valley Classic. This tournament also features the likes of Serena Williams and Sofia Kenin. Let’s see if the World No.1 will show any rusty muscles.

Read More: How Ash Barty Retained World No.1 Rank Despite Not Playing Since February 2020?