Southern Brave captain Sophie Molineux, fresh off the back of leading Australia to ICC Women’s T20 World Cup glory, says the Utilita Bowl-based side is ready to go for this year’s edition of The Hundred.

Southern Brave’s men’s and women’s sides play their opening fixture against Welsh Fire today (Wednesday, July 22) at Utilita Bowl.

Molineux, who was recently announced as captain of Southern Brave Women, recently led the Australian side to T20 World Cup victory, beating England in the final.

On bringing her Australian winning culture to Southern Brave, Molineux said: “That would be great. It's obviously a very different team and a very different tournament, but it's really exciting. Southern Brave has had a huge success in the tournament in their history and to be able to hopefully lead this team to more would be amazing.

“Looking at the squad, there's a lot of depth and skill, there's a lot of class with the bat and then some experience with the ball as well. It's a nice balanced squad so yeah, I am really excited to see what the group can do.”

While Southern Brave’s squad has some senior figures, including Lauren Bell and Jemimah Rodrigues, the squad also features young England and Surrey prospect Tilly Corteen-Coleman.

“I think Tilly could teach me a couple of things,” said Molineux.

“I'm really looking forward to working with her, she's extremely talented and has done really well wherever she's gone so far. We've got a quite a young squad, so there's plenty of players there I'm really looking forward to getting to know and hopefully learning off each other.”

The Hundred is entering a new phase after the ECB finalised the sale of stakes in all eight teams, bringing new ownership, players, kits and team names. Molineux believes the changes have brought a sense of positivity, energy and opportunity to The Hundred.

She said: “It feels great, the energy and the atmosphere even just internally in the lead up to the tournament. It's a really exciting time for cricket in England and to be a part of it is really special and you can just see that there's a great feel about it.

“We’re in an English summer and the weather has been amazing, great for cricket, so while it might look and feel different at times, at the same time it’s a really positive thing to be part of.”

Southern Brave Women take on Welsh Fire at Utilita Bowl from 3pm today (Wednesday, July 22), before the men face Welsh Fire at 6.30pm.