"We met up together last week and it was lovely to see fresh faces, girls really eager to learn and to see all the hard work they've put in over the past few months."
Sunday 13 August 2017 11:30, UK
In her latest Sky Sports blog, Georgia Elwiss discusses why Loughborough Lightning can compete for the Kia Super League crown this season after their third-placed finish last term, plus Stonewall's Rainbow Stumps campaign.
Well, what a few weeks it's been! I'm not sure I've come back down to earth yet although the Australian contingent in my KSL team are trying very hard to make sure I am!
After enjoying a week off supporting the Lionesses over in Holland we're swiftly back into action in the second year of the Kia Super League.
I'm once again playing and captaining Loughborough Lightning and I'm really looking forward to getting back on the pitch and into the swing of things!
It's great that this year six group games in the competition, plus the matches at Finals Day, are being shown live on Sky Sports.
It really shows how far the women's game has come and it's definitely heading in the right direction.
We met up together last week and it was lovely to see fresh faces, girls really eager to learn and to see all the hard work they've put in over the past few months.
This year we are certainly looking to build on what we achieved last year and win the competition.
Both our coach, Salliann Briggs, and I have outlined our vision and we're really excited about what this team could achieve.
Over the last week we've played a couple of warm-up matches including beating Lancashire Thunder in a friendly, something we didn't manage to do last year!
It's been great to welcome back Pez (Ellyse Perry) and welcome (Kristen) Beams and (Elyse) Villani to our squad, too.
It's also great to see the new faces of Lucy Higham, Abi Freeborn, Sarah Glenn and Marie Kelly who all have merited their selection and are pushing hard for places.
Our season kicked off on Saturday against the Western Storm at Taunton, live on Sky Sports.
We donned Stonewall's Rainbow Laces to support their campaign for LGBT inclusion in sport and show that cricket is everyone's game.
