It was an incredible knock by Danielle Wyatt when she last made her last international appearance in an England shirt – an astonishing 56-ball century against Australia at Canberra in November 2017.
But, she’s has got a secret weapon as England prepare to take on India and Australia in a T20 tri-series in India later this month.
“I’m using Virat Kohli’s bat now,” she said, grinning during an interview with Espncricinfo.
The bat was a gift, given to Danielle when she met Virat Kohli at Derby during India’s tour of England in 2014. It was a somewhat awkward encounter. Earlier that year, having watched Kohli make 72 in the WT20 against South Africa, Wyatt had taken to Twitter with a now-infamous proposal: ‘Kholi marry me!’
Danielle also recalled the moment when she got over 1000 likes and retweets in just a few minutes. “I picked my phone up and I’ve got 1000s of favourites and retweets, it’s all over Indian news, they’re emailing my dad at home,” she added.
Wyatt’s first meeting with Kohli
“When we met, he (Kohli) said to me: ‘You can’t do things like that on Twitter! They take things seriously!’ I was like, ‘okay. Sorry!'”
Nonetheless, aware of what a big fan Wyatt was, Kohli handed over one of his own bats to Wyatt, which she described as “a beast”. And now, for the first time, she is preparing to use it when she bats for England in this month’s T20I tri-series.
“The bat I hit the century with broke not long ago,” she explained. “So now I’ll be using Virat’s.”
That century by Wyatt against Australia is the fastest by an England cricketer in T20Is. It was a stunning performance that enabled England to level the Ashes rubber at eight points all, even though Australia retained the Ashes following their victory in the second T20I.
So now England team supporters will be hoping that Virat Kohli’s bat can do the trick for Wyatt.
