Grace Ballinger is embracing her role as a senior player with The Blaze as the East Midlands outfit seek a return to winning ways against the South East Stars at Grace Road.
The seamer is in a squad of 13 for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint fixture, including Sarah Glenn who has recovered from concussion suffered on tour in New Zealand.
Ballinger has taken on a leadership mantle with the loss of several players to international duty and injury in the infancy of the 2024 season.
“There is a chance for other people to step up in this first block of games, and take on those key roles,” she reflected.
“Hopefully they can make it difficult for other girls to get into the side when they come back because that’s a nice headache to have.
“My particular job hasn’t changed from a role point of view because I managed to establish myself well in the side last year with the new ball.
“But I have tried to help Kirstie and that is something that I have enjoyed. We had a lot of people away over the winter and I was one of the few that was there and part of a leadership group, that’s been great and I feel like I have grown into it massively."
Ballinger was also full of praise for her new ball partner Nadine de Klerk who, fresh from landing from South Africa, claimed three wickets and scored 43 with the bat.
“Nadine flew back on the day and she was straight on the money. I’ve said before how much I like bowling with her, and she was the same again," she continued.
“In her first game, it would have been very easy for her to say she was just off the back of the IPL and a few series with South Africa, she wanted to wait for the second game but it was her that made the decision to play.
“She fits into our group really nicely and she is so knowledgeable. It is great to have her around to make contributions on and off the field.”
The Stars come into the fixture against The Blaze with a win under their belt having beaten reigning champions Southern Vipers in the opening game of the season.
But with home turf to take advantage of, Ballinger - who took 18 wickets in last year’s 50 over competition - is optimistic that her side can build on positives from their first game against Central Sparks, in which they bowled the Edgbaston-based side out for 213 before falling short with the bat.
“One game doesn’t define you and we’ve developed a winning mentality over the last year which we still want to continue," she said.
“We took a lot of good things from the performance. Our bowling and fielding was excellent so we did half a job. We just need to put things right with the bat.
“Stars are definitely a strong side but we have got to take a lot of confidence from beating them last year and being fresh off the back of beating them a handful of times in Abu Dhabi during pre-season.
“Grace road is somewhere we have done pretty well, we had a massive win against Sparks there in the T20 competition last and generally it is a pretty good pitch for seamers, which I can hopefully take advantage of."