A PLACE in the full England squad is firmly in Georgia Hennessy’s sights as she continues to make strides in the world of women’s cricket.

The 17-year-old allrounder, who plays Birmingham League cricket for Barnards Green seconds, has returned from a successful three-week tour of South Africa with England under 19s.

Hennessy, named the Herefordshire and Worcestershire junior female sports personality of the year, made a nightmare start but improved as the tour went on.

The Malvern teenager made back-to-back ducks in the opening two twenty20 matches of the trip but bounced back to find form as England claimed a 4-2 series victory across three t20s and three one-day internationals (ODIs).

She said: “The start of the tour was not good for me as I got two ducks in the first two t20 games, so I thought I would get dropped.

“I batted at number three in both games but I was still picked at three again for the third game and made 33, so I was glad to get some runs.

“I then made 36 and 74 in the first two ODIs and we went on to win the series 4-2 overall.

“We were also supposed to play an ODI against the full South African women’s team but that game was rained off.

“Touring South Africa was a great experience but the pitch conditions and the nets were difficult for us to get used to at the beginning.”

Hennessy added: “It was also very hot out there but, once we got used to that, we did pretty well.”

On her return from the tour, Hennessy was promoted from the under 19s set-up to the full England academy squad and the ambitious youngster is not planning to stop there — even if it does mean making sacrifices along the way.

The Warwickshire player admitted: “Fitness is probably the hardest part for me as you have to be very disciplined and make the right choices — I have a lot of friends’ 18th birthdays coming up, but I’ll just have to make sure I say ‘No’!

“Hopefully, I can keep pushing on and make my way into the full England squad soon — every year I have been getting closer and they have been impressed with the improvements I have made in all aspects, such as batting, bowling and fitness.

“When you play against the full England players for your county, it can be a bit scary at first, but I have come up through the age groups now and mix with them in training camps, which makes it much easier.

“I have been moved up from the under 19s to the full academy team and we have just finished a training camp at Old Trafford and have another one coming up in December at Loughborough.

“Hopefully, I will then be going on tour with the side again in February when we will be heading out to either Sri Lanka or Bangladesh.

“We are getting coached by the full England coaches when they come down to work with the academy squad and that has been really good.”