Anya Shrubsole - The Queen of swing has put the ball down!

One of the fascinating YouTube videos featuring Anya Shrubsole goes back to the immediate aftermath of the 2017 Women's ODI world cup. Asked about her feelings about competing in the finals and then winning it, Shrubsole takes viewers down the road of the considerable planning into the mega event.

She expresses candidly, "I remember speaking to someone before the tournament and the ambition was to sell out the final. So I sat there and thought to myself. It was a nice thought, probably didn't think that would happen. But for that to become a reality. It was such an amazing game."

That's precisely the thing that will always stand out for Anya Shrubsole; her self effacing personality. 

When she could so quickly have spoken about her famous six-for that derailed India, denying the team any chance whatsoever at wrestling back into the game, Shrubsole focused on just what a surreal match the final was.

Back in 2017, Anya Shrubsole, then just 25, was the talk of the town, the brightest star in England and clearly, the most-talked-about bowler.

With a game-changing 6 for 46, the best figures registered in a women's world cup final and the best ODI spell (ever) at the venue considered the sport's spiritual home, Shrubsole was everywhere.

Frankly, not an awful lot has changed in the years hence.

While in the windy evening of Lord's back in 2017, Shrubsole took the decisive wickets and changed the situation in her team's favour. In 2022, during the final against Australia at Christchurch, Shrubsole was, once again, among the wickets.

For someone who began her World Cup without any dismissals in the opening match, the right-arm seamer ended on a high with three wickets.

Though in the context of the situation, these weren't wickets; these were massive dismissals, Healy, Mooney and later, Lanning all falling into the trap of the one who could make the white ball talk.

But the thing you'd regard as Anya Shrubsole's most significant high wouldn't just be the wickets; it would be the commanding journey she'd undertake that would change the narrative of the Women's game.

We spend most of our lives chasing big money. We run after conjuring a sublime property and go sleepless in the race for burgeoning bank deposits. 

But only a few of us get to be at the epicentre of a movement. Even fewer get to author the story of a revolution.

When the future generations rewind the clocks to examine just who were the critical figures who shaped the narrative of the women's game, they'll find amid a prestigious aggregation of cricketing greats, the name of Anya Shrubsole.

They'll talk about Meg Lanning for transforming a wily collection of talents into a bastion of world-beating heroes. They'll throw light on a Mignon du Preez for leading South Africa to some of their finest white-ball wins and being the humble bedrock of their batting. 

They'll laud the menace and magic of Katherine Brunt, the empress of fast bowling, who overcame bullying to inspire a younger generation to take up bowling in a game revered for its batting.

And lest it is forgotten, they'll chant the name of Anya Shrubsole ever so lovingly. The one who was willing to be ever so little despite being single-handedly responsible for winning England a world cup with her bowling heroics.

For someone who arrived in the sport aged just seventeen and has kept the ball down for good at just thirty, Shrubsole has been part of two world cup wins for England, collected 227 wickets, featured in 173 games for her country, resurrected in-swing as art all over again, and emerged as an English braveheart that hardly conceded freebies, giving everything to her team's cause.

You could be dubbed a one-match or series wonder if you emerge with a fifer at a miserly rate, never to be seen again. But you are indeed a legend if you exit the game at its top with an economy of just 4.2, having featured in no fewer than 85 bowling appearances (in ODIs).

Other lead white-ball bowlers Shrubsole played against, think Sophie Devine, Diana Baig and Shamilia Connell measured 4.4 (128 ODIs), 4.7 (42 ODIs), and 4.6 (56 ODIs), respectively.

Though that being said, Anya Shrubsole presides over a bittersweet career, delightful in that it stretched well over a decade, moving fans and her England teammates in awe and strange in that it comes to an end after only delivering 4002 deliveries.

It's a career punctuated by the frequently occurring sight of batters failing to read the incoming delivery, one pitched at around the off, featuring an almost lethal movement assisted by the nip in the air, not a journey that had any space for gloating.

It's also a career that has compelled us to take perhaps cognizance of a sport that is exceptionally fast-paced in its present-day ski, with an almost endless spell of series' and contests pressurizing its pursuers instead of leaving them excited about what is next.

Maybe that is why Shrubsole, who confessed about not being able to keep up with the pace, has called time.

Though what you can't call time over is the timelessness of her impact on England, which now has a considerable vacancy that may never be truly filled.