Beth Mooney on World Cups, injuries and playing in a generational Australia team
Mooney has more good days than bad and there are few players better suited to rescuing a team from 76-7 down in a World Cup match, as he did against Pakistan this month.
“It was a little scary, wasn’t it?” Mooney says. “You go into games with a bit of a plan, an idea of how it’s going to turn out, and when I woke up that was definitely not on my bingo card.
“I thrive in those situations, I want to be the person who can change the outcome of the game and I enjoy the problem-solving part of the game, adjusting and adapting as the game progresses.”
If there is one message that constantly surrounds this remarkable Australian side, it is the need for relentless hard work. Mooney epitomizes this attitude.
In Australia’s 16-0 third T20 international in the 2025 Women’s Ashes, the Queenslander scored 54 of her 94 runs during the match-winning innings. Never before has an Australian player scored so many runs off the boundary in a T20.
“I probably didn’t really understand what it meant to play at an elite level until I left home,” he said. “And there’s one thing about knowing what it takes, but there’s another part about learning how to work hard and be uncomfortable.”
Time and time again, Australian players have been quietly pushing themselves to the limit.
“There’s a real sense of pride in the way we work,” says Mooney, “and people don’t need to be told they need to go for a run or go to the gym, everyone does it because they know how important it is.”
While you don’t get the impression that Mooney would give anything less than anything, he knows it takes being ruthless to be successful: “You know, if you let your guard down a little bit, it doesn’t take much for someone who’s playing really well in domestic cricket to replace you.”
