Hasrat's life changed the day she stumbled across the T20 World Cup

Hasrat Gill has played alongside the likes of Meg Lanning in the state team. (Supplied: Sam Richards/Cricket Victoria) Link copiedShareShare articleHasrat Gill's earliest memories of cricket are like a lot of Australian kids. She grew up in the backyard with either a bat and ball in hand and then would head inside, where Test cricket was regularly on the TV. Then one day in 2016, when she was 10, she was flicking through channels on the TV and came across the Women's T20 World Cup in India. "For the first time in my life, I actually realised that girls played cricket," Gill, who was born in India, tells ABC Sport. Before that, she had predominantly played with boys at her primary school, as her fellow female classmates were not that interested in learning how to bowl. But watching Indian captain Mithali Raj and star player Harmanpreet Kaur on the TV planted seeds in her brain. "That was the moment where I was like, 'You know what? I really want to play cricket now because I can see that there's a pathway for young girls to follow,'" she says. Indian-born Australian Hasrat Gill has represented Australia in the Under-19 Women’s squad. (Getty: Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC) It helps, too, that she has always been naturally gifted. "It's funny because when I was younger, I just thought anyone could run in and bowl with a straight arm," she laughs. Gill, now 20, is an all-rounder for Victoria's state team and plays for Sydney Thunder after entering the WBBL at just 16 when she first signed with the Melbourne Stars. And after donning the green and gold at the 2025 ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup, and playing next to the likes of Meg Lanning and Phoebe Litchfield, she's now firmly "jumped ship" to supporting Australia as her number one team. Gill's rise through the Australian cricketing ranks has been against a backdrop of South Asian teenagers gravitating towards the sport. Australian cricket is booming at junior levels but as the sport attracts a more diverse and higher player base, the pressure on some of these kids is becoming too much and burnout looms. Cricket has rapidly emerged as the first-choice, premier sport for South Asian teenagers in Australia, with massive participation surges at the grassroots level. Driven by cultural heritage and high engagement, South Asian youth make up a significant portion —up to 40 per cent in some age groups — of junior cricket, often overtaking traditional Australian sports like soccer, Aussie Rules or rugby. This year, Victoria has seen a further 5 per cent year-on-year increase in South Asian participation, driven in part by a 20 per cent uptick in junior cricket and 16 per cent increase in women's and girl's participation. Hasrat Gill has loved cricket since she was a kid. (Getty: Josh Chadwick) She was born in Amritsar, the second-largest city in Punjab, and was raised by her grandparents for the first two and a half years of her life while her parents sorted her visa for Australia. For her, it is the visibility piece of having high-profile players like Usman Khawaja and Alana King at the top, while at the grassroots, the sport is a cultural heritage connector back to countries like India and Pakistan. "You're seeing a lot of second-generation immigrants as well … I think that's a general trend across the state because we've got a really strong South Asian community in Victoria," Gill says, adding Cricket Australia has done a lot of work with their multicultural plan to appeal to different communities. "It's a flow-on effect … and being such a big part of Indian culture, I think it's a natural sort of transition. While different league executives grapple with how to make their sport the most desired amongst the country's youth, Gill hopes to see more South Asian representation across the board. The next step in South Asian inclusion in Australian sport, for her, would be more representation in codes like soccer and AFL. "There's obviously so much more that can be done," Gill says. "But also it's important to remember how far things have come already." Hasrat Gill now plays for Sydney Thunder. (Getty: Adam Trafford) Gill is not shy about wanting to play for Australia one day. Her "big goal, the ambitious goal" is to not just make the team but consistently represent her country. "For myself personally, I don't want to just be someone that's just another player that's played domestic cricket, like there's so many of those around, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's what you want to do, of course," she says. "But for me, from my perspective, and seeing how things are progressing in the women's game, you just want to be a part of it as much as you possibly can." Copy linkFacebookX (formerly Twitter)Sport'We can be a voice for women': Afghan cricketers push for ICC recognitionTopic:Cricket

Hasrat's life changed the day she stumbled across the T20 World Cup

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Hasrat's life changed the day she stumbled across the T20 World Cup

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