Heytesbury Rebels, Essendon Maribyrnong Park talent Milly Illingworth named in Australia's Under 19 World Cup squad

The Port Campbell product and Emmanuel College Warrnambool student, only hours after playing on the WACA for Vic Country in the under 19 national championships grand final against NSW Metro, found out she was part of a 15-player Australian squad for the inaugural ICC Under 19 Twenty20 World Cup to be played in South Africa from January 14-29.

The squad - picked off the back of the national championships which were played over the past week - features four Victorians including the right-arm speedster who will be flying the flag for south-west Victoria with pride.

Australia will compete in Group A alongside Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and United States of America, with the first game scheduled on January 14 against Bangladesh in Benoni.

"It was so exciting, I still can't really believe it to be honest. It feels so surreal, I wasn't expecting it," the Heytesbury Rebels youngster told The Standard.

"It doesn't feel real in a way - the girls in the team, most of them are contracted so it feels so good to be amongst really high-level cricketers.

"I'm definitely pinching myself, and probably will for a while. It's definitely a country on my bucket list, so I'm super keen for it."

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She added the prospect of playing against other countries and potentially the likes of England, India, Pakistan if Australia advanced through was an exciting thought.

"It's going to be a great test of our skills against the best cricketers in the world, there are some girls really kicking off for India and playing against girls who are already in their national team will be a great experience," she said.

"It'll be a wonderful test for the team."

The speedster, who is known to push 125kph and among Victorian Premier Cricket's most promising quicks with Essendon Maribyrnong Park, says she is proud to be representative of the immense growth of cricket in regional Victoria.

"It really showed this year the high level of (women's) cricket coming through in the country regions, Paris Bowdler and Rhys McKenna have made the team (from Victoria) which is more than metro so it's showing how much improvement has been made over the years," she said.

"It's finally coming to light in a way, so it's so good to see. Making the final was just a glimpse of what we got in us."

The teenager led the wickets for Vic Country in the national championships, snaring nine wickets from seven matches with an average of 9.33, including two hauls of three. Her strike-rate of 15.33 was ranked sixth in the country.

She said the plans she made for herself with her coaches leading in to the championships came to fruition after working hard on her game at club level.

"I'm really proud of how I've trained (in the lead-up)," she said.

"For me, coming into these nationals after having a disappointing one last year, accuracy was important to me and it showed I guess.

"I talked to my coach, we had an individual meeting and mentioned that I wanted to bowl stump-to-stump and hopefully the wickets will come as a result of that.

"Most of my wickets were bowled or LBW in the champs, so it was really good. I was pretty happy with my performance.

"The coaches from Victoria, Heytesbury Rebels, EMP, a lot of credit goes to them - I'm proud of myself definitely, but I'm also so proud of what people around me have done for me, I wouldn't be here without them. It's a credit to them for helping me in the last few years."

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