Emma King has entered the Women’s Big Bash League bubble for another season.
And the star spinner has told emageogroup.com the Perth Scorchers shouldn’t shy away from talking about striving for a title that has been just beyond their reach in four previous editions of the tournament.
The Scorchers have twice been WBBL runners up but narrowly missed finals for the first time last season after struggling to maintain momentum through the tournament.
“It was just too up and down,” King said. “We’d have a really good day and the next day not be able to back it up or vice versa. Injuries are part of the comp and it’s not really an excuse, every team has them, so we’ve just got to find a way to be more consistent for longer.
“I hope we’ll be contenders this season. I think every team kind of feels that way at the start – positive thoughts and all that. But realistically we should be right up there again with finals on the horizon and I don’t think we should be shy of talking about it because we do have a team good enough to do it. It’s just going to be about whether we can be consistent for long enough.
“It’s exciting as always – the Big Bash bubble, as we call it. There’s a lot of opportunities for people playing in different positions so it should be good.”
King had her first taste of WBBL in its maiden season but really came to life in WBBL02 with 17 wickets and boasts 41 wickets across four seasons in orange.
The 27-year-old has worked on some fresh variations during the off-season but said her first priority was to book her ticket on the plane for the Scorchers’ season opener against the Melbourne Renegades in St Kilda on October 23.
King showed she was in good form with four wickets in the WA’s first two matches of the WNCL last month.
“We’ve got a lot of girls that are fighting for the same positions so I’m just doing everything I can to get selected first and then go from there,” King said.
“I’m feeling in a good space. The WNCL group did very well as a team. To get the two wins in a row, which I don’t think we’ve done in a long time, was a great start.”
This season is different off-field for King, who has had to take term four off her job has a Health and Physical Education teacher at St Hilda’s after the season was moved forward.
King is also continuing to manage a knee injury she has carried for the past three years.
“I went in for a surgery basically just to have a look to see what was going on and they’ve shaved down a little bit of cartilage that was floating around in there, got rid of that which was nice,” she said. “They’ve also just got rid of some of the fluid that was going around in there so it wasn’t anything majorly structurally wrong, just a couple of things that were persisting.
“I’ve got a slightly different run up to manage it, which most people won’t even notice.”
The Scorchers welcome back skipper Meg Lanning and Heather Graham from international duties.
King said it was “amazing” to see Graham get her chance for Australia in their most recent series, while Lanning provided a steady hand as leader.
“There’s nothing better than seeing your mates do well,” King said. “Heather definitely deserves it. We knew she was going to do it at a young age.
“I think the team is 50 per cent from WA, 50 per cent from elsewhere, either international or interstate, this year so you’ve just got to do your best to make sure everyone is on the same page with the plans and Meg does a pretty good job of meeting with the bowlers a couple of days out from the game to make sure we’re all clear on what to do. So she does a good job steering the ship.
“It’s pleasing that the media have jumped on so quickly with the competition. We didn’t think it was going to continue as much as it has. Hopefully the crowds keep coming down to Lilac Hill, in particular. We get like 5000 there to watch us so it’s been awesome to see it progress in such a short space of time.”
It’s about to get hot in #TheFurnace 🔥 Are you ready?.. #MADETOUGH pic.twitter.com/Gr66XqLJ6Q
— Perth Scorchers (@ScorchersBBL) October 18, 2019