"It brought us together as a squad" - Danni Wyatt on England's difficult start to the 2022 Women's World Cup

England’s Danni Wyatt missed her first game at the FairBreak Invitational 2022 but walked into the Falcons XI as the captain and made an impact right away. Opening alongside Chamari Athapaththu, Wyatt put on a 67-run partnership at the top en route to an unbeaten 76, helping her team to an eight-wicket win over the Barmy Army led by her international captain Heather Knight.

The FairBreak Invitational tournament is the first bit of competitive cricket a lot of these cricketers have played since the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand ended a month ago. Wyatt made quite a splash there too, of course.

The 31-year-old, like the rest of her team, didn’t have the best of starts to the tournament. She started off in the lower middle order, where she had been for a huge chunk of her ODI career, before being asked to open in the game against South Africa.

While she didn’t really get off to great starts initially, Wyatt turned it around in the game against Pakistan in Christchurch, when she scored an unbeaten 76 in a Player-of-the-Match effort. She then went on to play a blinder in the semi-final against South Africa to help her team make yet another World Cup final, where they would lose out to Australia.

In an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda facilitated by Eurosport India, who are the official broadcasters of the FairBreak Invitational in the country, Danni Wyatt opened up about the FairBreak Invitational, the 2022 Women’s World Cup and more. Here are the excerpts:

Q: In your opinion, just how big an opportunity is it for players around the world to play in the FairBreak Invitational?

A: It’s been absolutely amazing ever since I arrived here to meet my new teammates. There’s players from so many different countries here. Girls that I’ve never seen before but I’ve heard about so it’s really nice to see them play cricket and meet them in person and they’re all such nice people. And they’re willing to learn off myself and all the other international players that they’ve watched on TV over the years. Yeah, I think FairBreak have done an amazing job to get this tournament underway. And I don’t think it could have gone any better than it has.

Q: Along with players from the full ICC member nations, this tournament also has players from associate nations across the world. Who from the Falcons squad has impressed you the most?

A: (laughs) Well, as you said, this franchise tournament is very unique in the fact that there are so many associate players playing in this tournament alongside the international players. It’s fantastic for them to compare and see where they are at with their cricket and how far they’ve got to go and how hard they need to work and what they need to do to get to our level. Yeah, on our Falcons team, we are very lucky to have some very good associate players. A young girl called Theertha (Satish) who plays for UAE. Left-handed batter. She’s very, very technically gifted. I think her favorite batter is Virat Kohli so… She absolutely loves watching cricket and she watches him all the time and sees how he goes about his batting and I said, "You should keep watching him and you will be a very good player."

And (then there is) Gunjan (Shukla) from Sweden. Left-arm in-swing, she’s very, very hardworking. Yeah, there’s a number of really good players in our team. Everyone that’s had their chance, like Mariko Hill from Hong Kong. I was lucky enough to play with her for the Melbourne Renegades. She was a rookie player so she came in two weeks into the Big Bash environment just to see how we all trained and how we play. Things like that really benefit the associate players. Yeah, Marina (Lamplough) as well from Hong Kong.

We’ve just got a pretty fantastic team. We’ve got 9 points and we’re sitting top of the table so yeah, hopefully we keep going. And hopefully we’ll have our full-strength team out soon because we haven’t played with our full-strength team. Marizanne Kapp has struggled with a bit of illness, and Suzie Bates and Britney Cooper. But hopefully for the final few games we’ll have a strong team out.

Q: You missed the opener against Warriors but then came back into the side and skippered the team in Bates’ absence. What’s that been like? Especially to get one over your international captain?

A: Suzie struggled with a bit of illness as well so that meant I was captain. When they asked me to do it, I said 'yes' straightaway. It’s a great experience to captain a team like this out here in Dubai as well. It’s also on TV so it’s good practice.

I’m not going to lie, it has been hard work because some of these girls aren’t used to playing cricket in these conditions, or under this amount of pressure, so they are nervous. Some of the girls don’t speak English so there’s a lot of hand movement. And they’re still learning about the fields that they want and I obviously want to tell them that I think they should have this field and they may not agree with it. So you’ve got to have a good balance and ultimately make sure that they’re not too nervous and they’re calm because it’s a big stage, you know?

For the likes of Gunjan, Tina (Christina Gough) from Germany, it’s a big step up for them girls so you’ve just got to make them chill and make them feel at their best so that they can perform at their best ultimately.

Q: You shared a vital opening partnership with Chamari Aththapathu in your first game of the tournament. What’s it like to play alongside her? And just how important is she to your team’s plans for the rest of the tournament?

A: We’re very lucky to have Chamari Athapaththu on our team. I’ve seen her around the cricket circuit since I started playing in the last 12 years and she’s always been able to clear the ropes and hit it into the stands, which is a real good benefit obviously in T20 cricket.

She’s in really good form for us at the moment and hopefully she carries on. I love the way she goes about her batting. She always says to me, "see ball, hit ball and just react" because the wickets are a little slow out here, probably similar to the conditions in Sri Lanka. She just says get your head down and hit the ball because you don’t get value for your shots if you poke around.

Chamari Athapaththu in action during the WBBL last year.

And ultimately in T20 cricket, you’ve got to be brave and smart and show intent. We said before the tournament how we wanted to play our cricket. She’s shown everybody the way that we want to bat, and that’s with intent and being brave.

Q: Going back to the World Cup, you weren’t necessarily in the best of form. You had a change in role where you were moved back to the opener’s slot? And then that innings against South Africa in the semis. What was your thought process throughout that innings?

A: I had spent the last 12 months batting in the middle order in the ODI team and I think I averaged 70 batting at No. 6-No. 7. I did enjoy my time there but I think deep down, I did want to open the batting, cause I’ve opened for England in T20 cricket for a number of years and I’ve been successful so why not do it at the ODI level? And I grabbed the opportunity during the World Cup. I got 70-odd against Pakistan at Christchurch and then for the semi-final against South Africa, you know you always want to go out there and score runs.

The night before, I was sat there eating my chicken tikka masala and I thought ‘I want to score big tomorrow and you know just trust my processes, work hard in training, back myself and just relax’ cause obviously it’s a big stage, the semi-final, you can be nervous but I think it is all about how you feel in that moment. Nerves are normal, everybody gets nervous. I just backed myself. If there’s width, hit the width, and just defend the good balls. Obviously, I got dropped a couple of times but that’s cricket. You’ve got to capitalize on those drops and when it’s your day, go big. And luckily, it was my day and I contributed to a win.

Q: The English team had a couple of difficult months in Australia before a tough start to the WC campaign. How did the squad turn that around? Were there any specific moments that inspired the turnaround?

A: It was the longest we’ve ever been on tour. We were under strict conditions in New Zealand. Our families weren’t allowed to New Zealand to be with us so it was tough. We struggled mentally a little bit as well off the pitch.

Yeah, losing the first three games wasn’t ideal but we knew that if the results went our way and if we somehow turned it around and kept winning then there was a chance we could still make the semi-finals. So we just had a few days off mentally. I think if anything, it brought us together more as a squad.

Danni Wyatt at an England training session ahead of the 2022 World Cup final.

We had some tough conversations together and spoke about what we need to do to improve in the bowling, batting and fielding departments. And we just went out there, enjoyed ourselves, backed ourselves and did what we do best. And that is score big runs, take wickets, bowl straight and take all of our catches. We managed to win like five games in a row and we managed to make another World Cup final, which is an amazing achievement after the start that we had.

Q: The World Cup didn’t have a fairytale ending for England. That must have been difficult given the kind of roller coaster ride it had been until then. What was the mood in the camp like post that game?

A: Obviously we were gutted to lose to Australia in the final and Nat Sciver played an outstanding innings. Definitely the best knock I’ve seen her play. She’s just an incredible cricket player. But I think after the start we had, to make the World Cup final was something that we were proud of. We just had a few drinks to celebrate a rollercoaster ride throughout the whole tournament, ups and downs. We spoke about all the memories we had throughout the trip and all the good times we had on and off the pitch. We were just all proud of ourselves to have even reached the final.