From "future England captain", to stand-in England skipper, to full-time leader of a London Spirit team boasting some of the biggest stars of the sport, a season-and-a-half has changed Charlie Dean almost beyond recognition.
Almost, because there had already been some clear signs of Dean's leadership potential. In March last year, she sat at Taunton for Somerset's pre-season launch and fielded questions about the possibility of her taking over the then-vacant England captaincy role.
Back then, Dean said that it was "nice to be held in high regard" as a captaincy option, a month before England made the more predictable choice of Nat Sciver-Brunt as Heather Knight's replacement, but she also thought: "I've still got a bit of growth to go".
There were signs too when she stepped in for an injured Knight as London Spirit captain for last season's Hundred, leading her team to the Eliminator.
But Dean never imagined that, a year later, she would have captained England at a home T20 World Cup and would now be skipper of London Spirit in her own right, with Knight having stepped into a backroom role as the team's first-ever Women's General Manager.
"It's been huge," Dean tells Cricinfo of the past 18 months while sitting in the Pavilion at Lord's, the ground she wants her side to dominate through the competition, starting with their first match against Manchester Super Giants on Thursday.
"I don't think when we sat and chatted at Somerset I would have thought that I would have captained England within this timeframe. I feel like I've grown so much.
"I've really grown in confidence over the past couple of months, and it's been quite encouraging, being able to be on the pitch and read the game and growing those sorts of skills, but also growing my skills talking in front of the girls. I've just been supported so well that I couldn't have asked it to go on any better, really.
"Coming to captain in the Hundred again, I feel in a hugely different place than I was even this time last year with my captaincy. It's been great that I found it so fun and engaging. When something feels a bit daunting, that's when you're not sure whether you're the right fit, but I've really enjoyed it, which is encouraging within itself."
Dean was appointed as Sciver-Brunt's deputy late last year and made her international captaincy debut in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand in May, after Sciver-Brunt injured her calf playing domestic cricket.
Dean continued to lead England during T20I series with the White Ferns and India, then a recurrence of Sciver-Brunt's injury meant she had to stand in for three group-stage games, before the regular captain returned for the knockout phase with England ultimately finishing runners-up to Australia.
"I'm someone who tries to leave everything on the pitch," Dean says. "If I'm doing that with my actions, then it's a little easier to follow, when someone has a bit of something behind the words that they're saying
"I've also grown in the way that I've trusted my gut on decisions. Maybe previously I would have asked a few more questions of other people or waited a bit, but I feel like I've started to become a bit more proactive, and trying to take really positive options with my captaincy, rather than being a little more defensive.
"With the team-mates that I've been lucky enough to captain, they know what they're doing, so it's a lot easier to make really positive choices when you really back the people around you, and you know that they back you to do a job."
So, with a relative wealth of experience crammed into a short space of time, Dean returns to the London Spirit captaincy, well qualified to lead the likes of South Africa allrounders Marizanne Kapp and Nadine de Klerk, West Indies star Deandra Dottin and explosive Australia batter Grace Harris.
"I'm really looking forward to the challenge of chatting to some cricketers who probably know a lot more than me, if we're honest," Dean says. "I don't think I'll be telling Kappy what to do.
"It's just making sure that I'm framing things in the right way, to try and get the best out of those players. The calibre of the overseas that we have is phenomenal, so it brings a really exciting prospect but also learning from them."
Fortunately for Dean, she'll have Knight close at hand throughout the Hundred - one of the biggest influences on the development of her leadership.
Dean managed to keep the secret of her mentor's international retirement, which Knight shared with her shortly before announcing it midway through the inaugural women's Test at Lords against India. Dean herself didn't play the Test as part of a workload management strategy, having been diagnosed with a stress response in her back late last year.
"She's been huge," Dean says of Knight's influence. "She's someone that leads from the front and drags the whole team with her, no matter what, and I really love that about her.
"Also watching Nat as well, go about things slightly differently, I've also really enjoyed. She's a brilliant leader within her own right. Slightly different styles but if I can have a little blend of the two in any way, then that's what I want to do, but also do it within my own style as well.
"Heather's brilliant for me for bouncing ideas off, and I'm looking forward to her perspective on how things go in the next couple of weeks. It's nice to still have her around, and really learn off her, and how she sees the game from a different lens off the pitch now."
There is a sense that England's run to the T20 World Cup final meant the public began to view them through a different lens too, after they failed to reach the knockouts in 2024. That setback sparked the beginning of the end for Knight's time as captain, the failed 2025 Ashes tour of Australia being the final stanza.
"The whole World Cup was amazing," Dean says. "The support that we had going around the country, and the momentum that we felt like we were really picking up, it felt like we were starting to get people talking positively about where we were as a team, which really excited us.
"We had to do our jobs on the pitch, and we played some really good cricket leading up to the final, which really helped, but we felt like we were winning back a bit of public opinion, which is always a great place to be in.
"We try not to listen to too much commentary and noise outside our little bubble, but we were really keen on trying to show how much we enjoy playing for England and what an amazing opportunity it was to have a home World Cup.
"The feelings of not quite getting over the line in the final haven't quite sunk in. It would have been really poetic if we'd won, but at the end of the day, Australia were better than us on the day."
So, it's already on to the next thing, but when England duties come around again, the team will be in a better place than they were a year ago - and their vice-captain can take some credit for that.