Grace Harris doesn't want to be the big dog, just the best player she can be

Grace Harris has emerged as one of the most hard-hitting batters in T20 cricket. She smashed several records recently while playing in T20 leagues around the world, apart from representing Australia. Here she opens up about her record- and bat-breaking T20 century in the WBBL, staying out of the Australian team for over five years, and how she approaches pressure situations.

We'll come to the cricket soon. Tell us about your socks collection first.
I've got a whole drawer at home, but I recently had to cut a couple. At the moment I'm rolling with about ten pairs on tour. They're all different. I've tried to match a couple with the purple to go with our UP Warriorz kit, and then just some that I like. Some people often ask me whether [it's about] superstition - whether some socks win you games, some don't. I don't really believe in superstitions. You're either winning the game based on skill or you're losing it. I just love collecting socks because it was the only part of the kit that I got to control, and so I just let my personality shine through my footwear, I guess!

We've heard you've been trying different kinds of food since the WPL is in Bengaluru and Delhi this time.
Paani puri still sits very high on the list. I don't mind the chaat. And I still love a good masala dosa. So unfortunately, north Indians, I like the south Indians' breakfast better!

I went to an Indian restaurant last night that was very good and I had a black dal and naan bread, and I must admit that's high on my list at the moment too.

You recently bowled against Delhi Capitals when they needed ten off the last over, and you won UP Warriorz a match they were very nearly losing.
(Laughs) Look, I went in with no expectations, so I think that really helps you in the moment, because you don't have any nerves. You're just like, "I think we're not really going to win this." When you've got two batters there - Radha Yadav and Jess Jonassen - and I thought they should be able to get ten [off the last over]. I would have picked Delhi Capitals if I was a stranger watching the game.

As a bowler you're thinking it's going to go for ten. And then when that first six got hit [off the first ball of the over]... then defending two off four, I just knew that everything had to go right.

If you watched Gujarat Giants [against Mumbai Indians], Ash Gardner had to defend 13 off six, and two set batters, Harman [Harmanpreet Kaur] and Amelia Kerr in the middle. I think I'd still pick to be in Mumbai Indians camp there - 13 needed off six, fast outfields, right-arm offie, two right-hand batters. If I was bowling in that scenario, I'd probably feel the exact same way, but maybe the outcome is different. I'm not really trying to control the outcome, I can only control where I put the ball and how I want to bowl it. So that's how I stayed in the game.

You had a phenomenal 2023 in T20s: a record-breaking hundred in the WBBL, 914 runs in the year with a strike rate of 162, and played the WPL and the Hundred as well, apart from internationals. What do you think worked the best for you to make that happen?
I think I've run very self-efficiently most of the time. My 2023 - I've been in teams where I've adapted very well to whatever role I've been given and just tried to own that as much as I could. I've tried to embrace all my different team-mates and tried to get to know their cultures or how they live and how they operate within cricket, and I think it's the balance of off-field that helps your on-field game more than anything.

I've just been a bit happier, I guess, and relatively relaxed in a lot of environments. But mainly on field, I've tried to be as planned as I possibly can [be], and I'm well aware of my batting weaknesses or my bowling weaknesses, and I've just tried to stick to my strengths as well as try and develop my own game a little bit and get better at some of the things I'm not so good at.

What were your biggest learnings from playing around the world last year?
Probably I like being organised and being involved in controlled environments. And my biggest learning recently is that I don't get to control every environment that I'm in, and trying to go with the flow and just having a bit of gratitude and embracing whatever happens. I'm very much a person that likes having a calendar and schedules, and organisation is a big thing in my life. But turns out I'm also okay kind of just rolling with whatever happens. And I think that's been one of the biggest things - I've learnt to stress less about what's been coming up and kind of just think, "Well, I'm laying by the pool today right now, and if I get a message that I need to be somewhere then I'll just have to tell them I'll be there in 20 minutes (laughs)." That kind of stuff, and just embracing all the different things with travel.

You opened the batting in the WBBL but you bat in the middle order otherwise. Are there a lot of differences in the roles?
They're different in some aspects. Opening the batting you're going to get a shaping ball and you face less change-ups, or you might face one particular change-up, whether it's a bouncer or a slower ball or something that a bowler might have. You also have only two fielders out, so you can kind of be a touch more aggressive and take a risk without it being as risky as when you're finishing games with four [fielders] out.

There's differences, I guess, with how I approach it. But at the same time you still have to play the ball that comes down the wicket at you, and you still have to stick to the strength that you have and your shot selections. There are some aspects that remain the same, but when it comes to tactical and technical points, if you face the shaping ball versus at the back end, you're probably going to face a lot more change-ups, and the ball is more often straighter and softer [later in the innings], so it might not travel as fast off the bat.

Tell us about your 136 not out off 59 against Perth Scorchers. A knock made famous by a broken bat, but it also takes a lot of things to come together to score that much in a T20 with 11 sixes.
I was definitely on that day. There are some games where when you're reflecting on it and you kind of think, "I don't know how I did [that]." You're just in a zone. I don't think anything could have disrupted my thought processes that day. There was nothing that really went against me. Except for my broken bat, which I was unhappy about at the time. I think it was just the epitome of my game to play free at that stage.

And it was very early in the tournament. I guess at the start of the tournament you never think that you're going to hit a hundred straight up. You're kind of just wanting to score runs and wanting to take any opportunities you can. So that day I thought, it's a really flat wicket, it's a good outfield and it's a great venue for myself as a person that has a bit of power in her game [to be able to] actually get away a little bit with hitting the ball up and it'll still make the boundary. So that day I just went for it and it paid off (laughs).

You were left out of the Australia T20 squad just before that for the West Indies series. Do these things add to your hunger to perform in any way? Or does it not work like that?
This is another thing I've learnt over the years - you can't really think too much about selection. I can't control whether I'm picked or not, I can only control what shots I play out in the middle, I can control how I prepare for any role that I'm given.

As a player, I'd love to open the batting every game because you want to bat, right? I'd love to open the batting and the bowling because you want to be involved in the game as a player. If it was my own choice, I would open the batting and bowling and I'd field in all the hot spots, and I'd try and be involved as much as possible because that's what you train for. [But] I don't really prepare to be selected every time. I just go, "If they're going to pick me, they'll pick me. If they don't, they don't", and I'm just running drinks or chatting away on the sidelines. You just embrace it. So it was just about being where your feet are.

You were also out of the Australia T20I squad for over five years, 2016 to 2022. What things did you work on in that period? Were you told that doing certain things would get you back in the squad?
I'm not really a player that often has asked selectors for feedback. I just kind of accept any decisions that they make, because I feel like I try to constantly work on my game anyway, and the coaching staff of the teams that I'm in, if they know what I'm working on, they're going to help me work on it, or if they think I'm off track, they'll let me know: "I think you should focus on this and play these shots." I'm happy to have those honest conversations. I'm fairly blunt and straightforward often.

The girls that play, they deserve their crack in the game because they've been playing cricket very well and I didn't really play very well [back then]. I was still learning a lot of games. So I just went with it.

How did you come up with the idea of working on your power-hitting in those years? Did you have specific routines or strength and conditioning or something else?
Again, I just trained for whatever role I was given within the team I was in. I've always been a power-hitter, so it was probably more working on the other aspects of the game - rotating the strike more and how I can access different areas of the ground. And then how I incorporate that as a smart play to score runs.

I never really want to bat to not get out, I want to bat to score runs. There's a lot of aspects - it's both technical and a mental approach to your game. It's [about] how you want to play the game. There are certain people that just want to hit fours. They just go, "No, I don't hit sixes," and for me, I want to hit sixes and I want to hit boundaries. I want to move the game along. So that part just comes more naturally, or I'm more embracing of it. I probably needed to work on how I was going to add a bit of light to the shade.

Can you talk a little about working on the mental aspect? Even if you have the technique and power to hit sixes, how do you develop the self-belief and confidence to do it in a match?
It's not naturally who I am. I wouldn't say that I am naturally a confident player. I'd like to think that I'm simply a realistic player, and so I know where I don't hit balls very well and I know where I hit them very well. It's on the bowler to bowl their best ball to get me out. So I didn't really work on confidence. I just try to avoid playing on emotions in the moment, and [work] more on the tactical mindset. Your emotions can come after the game's done.

You love cricket when you're playing it. You have to love the game to play it. Like, you have to enjoy it, so I lean more into that than "I'm a terrible player because I got out very early today" or "I've only scored 30 runs for the last six months, so I should give this game up." I enjoy playing the game.

I know why I'm getting out or how I'm getting out, so I try and fix it where I can. But sometimes your games and your calendar don't allow you to do that and you've to do that at the end of the series or at the very beginning, and sometimes you kind of fix it on the fly because it's only one or two small things you need to do. That's being an athlete and that's being a professional kind of cricketer.

You've become a specialist T20 pick in the Australian set-up, while most other players overlap the white-ball formats. Are you okay with that, and was it easy to become that kind of a player, where you didn't really have a path or model to follow?
That's a good question. You always want to play cricket for Australia, so don't get me wrong, I would love to be in the one-day format. I'd even love to have a crack at Test cricket. But being the realistic person that I am, I probably feel as though Test matches, I'm never going to get picked for, and I also feel like I'm probably not getting picked for a one-day team again for Australia. Because we've got so many good one-day players within our domestic system and in the Australian team already.

When I get picked as a T20 player, I'm just trying to play the best and better than every other player in world cricket. So it's not that I look at the Australian T20 team as a batting allrounder and think, "I want to open the batting or I want to bat in the top four." I look and I think, "How can I play this role with this opportunity I've got, and how can I play it better than the English No. 6 or 7 batter or the South African No. 7 batter? And how can I add value to the Australian set-up that way?" So my thoughts are basically [about asking myself] how I can be that better player.

I hate being called a "big dog" and I hate being called a "game-changer". I know that it might come with the territory but to me a good ball is still a good ball and you're going to face good bowling, and it's still cricket at the end of the day. Every human being can do I what I do within cricket is how I view it. But I just want to be the best player that I can be.