Kingswinford's Hannah Baker ready to cook up a storm back on home soil

Now she is aiming to do the same this domestic summer.

Ahead of the World Cup, in which England reached the final, Baker declared: “I want to be one of the leading wicket-takers. I don’t want to just be an average bowler. I want to be one of the best.”

Bold words from a young cricketer preparing to mix it with the world’s best.

Baker, from Kingswinford, backed it up with her 10 wickets costing just 7.3 runs apiece at an economy rate of 3.34 runs per over.

The 19-year-old’s tournament was highlighted by a match-winning three for 10 in the three-run semi-final win over Australia, when England remarkably defended 99.

Now back in the West Midlands, and getting stuck into a new season as a full-time professional, Baker is determined to grow from those adventures in South Africa.

“The whole experience was amazing,” said Baker. “Playing in a different country and for England – it was so good. It was my first time playing cricket abroad and took a while to adapt, but when you know you’ve got the backing of the team you feel more comfortable. Everything seemed to click.

“I was quite successful in the end which was one of my goals. I was just very much in the zone and had one job – to take wickets and help us win games, so was just very focused on that. It was a shame we couldn’t win the final, but I think we did pretty well in the tournament.

“The culture out there was crazy with the amount of school kids who came to watch and to be there playing cricket was really nice and quite humbling. It’s a bit crazy to be able say I’m a cricketer and that’s my job. It’s great and I feel very lucky.”

Lucky? Well, yes, but alongside a bit of luck, for anyone to succeed in professional sport, they need a bit more than that: hard work and commitment.

And, of course, skill. And leg-spin is perhaps cricket’s most magical, engaging and difficult skill.

To bowl leg-spin makes no physiological sense. It’s a nailed on way to make life difficult for yourself. A passport, for those not very good at it, to half-trackers and full tosses galore and analyses of 2-0-34-0.

But those who are good at it make life jolly difficult for the batters: Ask Shane Warne’s 708 Test match victims. Or Eric Hollies’ 2,323 first class victims.

So how did Hannah come to practice this weird art?

“When I first started playing cricket, my fingers naturally came over the ball, so the coaches said rather than running in and bowling pace, why not just walk in and bowl leg spin.

“It just clicked so since I was at Under-9s and playing hard ball it’s been leg-spin. I took a couple of months off just before the transition to hard ball because I was thinking ‘oh, it’s a hard ball and boys’ but I was convinced to carry on playing – and I’m glad I did! I love bowling it.

“It all started because my brother played cricket and I was fed up with watching him and almost jealous of him keep winning everything. I didn’t really play a sport at that point so chose cricket and went down to nets with my dad at Beacon Cricket Club, Wombourne, and it grew from there.”

Hannah graduated through the Worcestershire age-groups before moving across to Warwickshire and then to Central Sparks where her reputation grew in regional cricket.

During the past two The Hundred campaigns, she played eight games for Welsh Fire, but this year will be hunting wickets on behalf of Birmingham Phoenix.

Now too old for England Under-19s, her challenge is to force herself into the full national set-up alongside fellow Sparks stars Amy Jones and Issy Wong.

Baker has started the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy with four wickets in three games at 22.5, before attention turned to the start of the 20-over Charlotte Edwards Cup on Thursday.

“I’ll just concentrate on doing well in regional cricket and see what happens,” she said. “It’s a really exciting time for women’s cricket. The Hundred has done a lot for the exposure of the game and we are seeing bigger crowds at regional games than ever. It’s great that people can make a living out of playing cricket.

“I can’t wait to play for the Phoenix. I love Edgbaston so it will be brilliant to play there in front of big crowds in the Hundred.”