WBBL's youngest captain Hannah Darlington leads Sydney Thunder into derby

At 19 years and 266 days, Darlington has been handed the keys to the WBBL's reigning champions with regular captain Rachael Haynes to miss the tournament after returning to Sydney for the birth of her first child with partner Leah Poulton.

The prospect of captaining a team living out of a hotel room with the chaos of COVID-19 hanging overhead looms as a tall order for anyone, let alone a teenager.

But Darlington, who captained NSW twice last season, is ready to rise to the occasion leading into a clash with the star-studded Sixers at Launceston's York Park on Saturday.

The Thunder opened their account with a 30-run loss at the hands of Adelaide while the Sixers, who face the Melbourne Stars on Wednesday, could be 3-0 before the weekend.

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The Sixers have shortened in to become equal favourites to win the tournament alongside Perth, and they will be desperate to make a statement to derail the Thunder's title defence.

"We're well aware that coming in as champions is something teams will look at but we can't look at that too much because we are a completely new team, it's another new tournament," Darlington said.

"I think Trevor [Bayliss] said it really well, we push those things aside and we go out there and play our brand of cricket which is attacking, and I think we looked to do that which is a positive. We're not looking too much at it and instead looking at what we can control.

"Of course we always look forward to the Sydney Smash and it's not at North Sydney this year, but we're going to make [York Park] as homely as we can.

"We're looking forward to heading out against the Sixers. Obviously they've had some good performances so far but it's going to be nice to get back out there. We know each other really well so I think it's going to be a really fierce contest."

The Thunder fielded five debutants while Anika Learoyd got her first real taste of the Big Bash during their season-opening loss to Adelaide.

The title holders were skittled for 110 in pursuit of the Strikers' total of 7-140, but Darlington suggests the Thunder's best is yet to come.

"It was a really enjoyable one. Everyone got around me and supported me before the game and as soon as we ran out there, we were well prepared to go out there and put a good performance on the board," Darlington said.

"Obviously it wasn't the result we were after but plenty of positives to take out of that one. I had a lot of fun actually. The fielders also took a lot of ownership on where they needed to be and it made it a lot easier for me at the end of the day.

"It's really nice to think we've had a week together and we came out and put a performance like that in the field. We were a little bit nervous heading out into the field, a bit rushed in terms of warm-ups and everything so to get out there and relax and be calm was really nice to be able to go out there.

"Five debutants and Anika's first proper game after some washouts last year and things like that just showed this team is ready to continue throughout the tournament."

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