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Analysis by BBC Cricket Correspondent Stephan Shemilt
In 2013, the Women’s World Cup was barely an afterthought. Played only in Mumbai, often on tiny grounds.
At one England game, in a group of travelling supporters, a lady explained that she was Tammy Beaumont’s mum. Beaumont, then only 21, did not play a game in a disappointing England campaign.
Her international career was at risk of tailing off.
Four years later, women’s cricket hit the big time and Beaumont was at the vanguard.
After having life breathed into her batting by the arrival of Mark Robinson as England coach, Beaumont was a star of the 2017 World Cup. What bigger honour can there be than being named player of the tournament in a home World Cup triumph?
Beaumont will go down as a great of English women’s cricket, not only for her runs, but for her longevity as the game moved into the professional era.
One of a handful of players, man or woman, to make centuries in all three formats for England, another career high would come with a double hundred in a home Ashes Test in 2023.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall when Beaumont was left out of the one-day squad earlier this summer, but she will get a fitting farewell in the first women’s Test at Lord’s. Don’t rule out one more big score.
