ALEX Hartley can’t wait for the new Kia Super League season as she gets set for her first season in a Lancashire Thunder shirt.

The East Lancashire spinner, a World Cup winner with England last summer, is hoping Thunder can enjoy a successful season having struggled in the competition’s two years so far.

And the 24-year-old from Blackburn, who swapped Surrey Stars for a move back to the north west this term, can’t wait for Sunday’s opener against Loughborough Lightning.

“I am happy to be home. It’s my first season playing for Lancashire Thunder and it is something I am looking forward to,” she told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“The girls haven’t had the best couple of seasons so hopefully we have got a stronger squad this year and we are definitely looking forward to it.

“We have a new coach, a new set of overseas players, we have three spinners out of the four who play for England so hopefully Lancashire provide some turning wickets for us! We’re definitely looking forward to it and we need to push on.”

Lancashire lost all five games in the Superleague last season and finished fourth in the One-Day Cup earlier this summer having won that tournament last year.

But Hartley is hoping her side can take the positives from that competition into the T20 format which sees Thunder battling it out with five other franchises for a place in finals day at Hove on August 27.

“We have a very young group of girls and finishing mid table is something we are proud of,” she said. “We have spoken about moving on, the T20 is a completely different game. We have not been batting our full 50 overs so hopefully we can bat our full 20 overs and get a score on the board.”

And Hartley admits performances in the Super League can have a wider context than just putting points on the board.

“Hopefully we can build some momentum and more people can come and watch the Super League.

“We want more kids playing cricket and the fact that it is happening makes us all very happy and the more young kids we can get playing cricket the happier we will be.

“The first year was a quiet year for the Super League and I think the World Cup really helped with that second year. With the World Cup win we had more and more people coming down and watching games. Hopefully the Super League can inspire more kids.”