Soon after turning 16, Perry played cricket for New South Wales in an under-19 interstate tournament in January 2007. In three matches, she scored 74 runs and took three wickets. A month later, she was selected in the Australian youth team for a tour of New Zealand, playing against the hosts’ second-string team. She scored 43 runs at 21.50 and took one wicket at 100.00.

Perry was fast-tracked into the Australian team for a series in July 2007 against New Zealand, despite having never played a match at senior level. She made her One Day International debut in Darwin on 22 July at the age of 16 years and 8 months, becoming the youngest-ever cricketer to represent Australia. Taking two wickets for 37 runs from eight overs, her first scalp was Maria Fahey, whom she bowled for 11. Then, batting down the order at nine, she made 19 from 20 balls before Australia were all out for 174 to lose by 35 runs.

Primarily a defender, Perry played her first match for the Australian national soccer team against Hong Kong at Hong Kong Stadium on 4 August 2007. She was 16 years and 9 months old at the time, having made her international cricket debut less than two weeks earlier, and scored a goal in the second minute of the match. Perry scored her second goal at international level in the 2008 AFC Women’s Asian Cup in a match against South Korea.

In her Twenty20 International debut at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against England on 1 February 2008, Perry “confirmed herself as a star for the future” through a “superb all-round performance” which included a late-innings knock of 29 not out from 25 balls before taking 4/20 off 4 overs to help Australia win by 21 runs. The breakthrough display, which also featured a skillful piece of fielding to execute a run out, sparked excitement around Perry’s potential to join revered players, such as Keith Miller, in Australia’s exclusive and illustrious club of legendary all-rounders.

Playing domestically for the Central Coast Mariners in the 2008–09 W-League season, Perry made her debut for the club against Queensland Roar on 15 November 2008. She began playing for Canberra United at the start of the 2009 W-League season, and went on to become the joint-recipient of the 2009 W-League Young Player of the Year award with Brisbane Roar’s Elise Kellond-Knight. She also won three Canberra United awards for the season: the Players’, Supporters’ and overall Club Player of the Year.

After completing her HSC in 2008, Perry studied Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney.

At the 2012 World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, Perry delivered a Player of the Match performance during a 28-run semi-final win against the West Indies, claiming crucial top-order wickets of Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin to finish with figures of 2/19 off four overs. In the final, she managed to take 1/24 off four overs as Australia held on to win by four runs against England to claim a second-consecutive World T20 title.

In May 2012, Perry was given an ultimatum by Canberra United to either quit cricket or find another W-League club. She consequently signed with Sydney FC for the 2012–13 season. Perry was part of the Sydney FC squad that competed at the 2013 International Women’s Club Championship, defeating NTV Beleza 1–0 but losing 3–2 to Chelsea.

On 29 May 2012, The Age reported that Heather Reid, the chief executive of Canberra United FC, had given Perry an ultimatum to choose between football and cricket. On 5 September, Perry joined Sydney FC, with new coach Alen Stajcic stating he was prepared to accommodate her twin sporting careers. This arrangement came to a head in January 2013 when Sydney FC’s W-League semi-final was scheduled for the same day as New South Wales’ T20 Cup final. A few days later, The World Game revealed Perry’s decision would be to play in the football semi-final. The following weekend, Perry declined to play for Sydney FC in the W-League grand final, opting instead to play for Australia in a warm-up game for the Cricket World Cup.

The 2013 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in India saw Perry miss three matches due to an ankle injury. In the final against the West Indies, after repeated unsuccessful attempts to make it through her delivery stride, she bowled her full allotment of ten overs and took 3/19 to help Australia win by 114 runs. The apparent pain through which Perry performed earned her the moniker of “Australia’s limping hero” and garnered plaudits for showing unbreakable spirit through adversity. Days after winning her first 50-over world championship, Perry underwent surgery to repair a fractured ankle.

Following a match on 16 November 2013 against Melbourne Victory, The Sunday Telegraph reported Perry’s “fame and fortune” had spurred opponents to kick and punch her behind the play. After the game, she required six stitches for a leg wound caused by a late tackle from Lisa De Vanna. In a subsequent interview with the Australian Associated Press, De Vanna denied any jealousy or trouble concerning Perry: “There was no punching, there was no kicking, there was no sledging. The only incident that happened was a tackle and it wasn’t the deliberate tackle that it’s been made out to be.”

On 24 October 2013, Perry and Australian rugby player Matt Toomua went public with their relationship by appearing together at the John Eales Medal ceremony. On 20 August 2014, the couple announced their engagement. They married on 20 December 2015. A self-described “coffee aficionado”, Perry co-owns several cafés with her husband. The couple separated in 2020.

In 2013, Perry was ranked by SportsPro magazine as the 36th most marketable sportsperson in the world, and the most marketable Australian athlete. She has fronted campaigns for Jockey and Hisense while also taking on ambassadorial roles with Red Bull and Microsoft. Her current corporate partners include Adidas, Commonwealth Bank, Toyota Fleet Management and Hublot.

At the 2014 World Twenty20 in Bangladesh, Perry was named Player of the Match against South Africa for scoring 41 not out off 29 balls in a six-wicket victory. Australia would go on to “coast” to a third-straight T20 world championship, defeating England in the final where Perry took 2/13 off four overs before making 31 not out and hitting the winning runs with six wickets in hand.

Despite achieving success as captain of the Sydney Sixers, Perry has never held the top on-field leadership position for the national team. After Jodie Fields stepped down from the job in 2014, Meg Lanning assumed the role, with Alex Blackwell and Rachael Haynes intermittently standing-in when required. In a 2019 interview with Daisy Pearce on 1116 SEN, Perry characterised herself as having a youthful and jovial persona within the Australian team, regardless of her experience and seniority. She attributed this phenomenon to having broken into the setup at such a young age.

On 13 February 2014, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Perry had elected to play in a W-League semi-final ahead of the Women’s National Cricket League final. In March, she was left out of a 23-player Matildas squad that was set to face Brazil in a two-match series. National team coach Hesterine de Reus confirmed Perry wouldn’t be considered for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup later in the year either: “When you play at the highest level you need to invest a lot of time to become a world-class player… We’re always keeping an open mind for competition, but at this point she was not invited.”

In the 2015 Women’s Ashes, on English soil, Perry helped Australia regain the trophy with several outstanding performances which included bowling her side to victory on the last day of the only Test. She took 6/32 in the second innings and finished with overall match figures of 9/70 off 30 overs in the 161-run win. Leading both teams for runs scored and wickets taken across the seven-match schedule, Perry was once again named Player of the Series. In the match on 21 July, she passed the milestone of 1,000 runs in ODI cricket.

At the official Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) launch on 10 July 2015, Perry was unveiled as the Sydney Sixers’ first-ever player signing. She would also become the team’s inaugural captain.

Perry played her last game in the W-League on 13 December 2015, a week after the launch of the Women’s Big Bash League—Australia’s new domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. She was named in Sydney FC’s squad for the 2016 grand final but instead played a conflicting T20I match against India. In a 2018 interview with The Roar, Perry said her path to becoming a single-sport athlete occurred naturally: “Essentially, both sports have grown so much and developed so much in the last couple of years that they really demand people to be full-time professional athletes… I ended up in cricket and haven’t played any football recently. I truly enjoyed my time playing football.”

In the inaugural season, the Sixers lost their first six matches of the season. Perry promoted herself up the batting order to form what would become a successful long-term opening partnership with Alyssa Healy, and the Sixers turned their fortunes around to win the next nine matches. The winning streak would come to an end in the final on 24 January 2016 when the Sixers lost to the Sydney Thunder by three wickets.

In April 2016, it was announced Perry would play for the Loughborough Lightning in the inaugural season of the Women’s Cricket Super League in England. In the 2016 semi-final, she scored 64 not out off 48 balls in a five-wicket loss to the Western Storm. Perry returned for the Lightning the following season, earning Player of the Match honours in the team’s only two wins.

The Sixers finished the regular season of WBBL|02 in first place, although Perry suffered a hamstring injury while batting against the Melbourne Renegades on 20 January 2017 which forced her to miss the playoffs. The Sixers would go on to beat the Perth Scorchers in the final, with Perry present in person to accept the team’s maiden championship trophy.

When accelerating the run rate of an innings, Perry is renowned as an immensely powerful striker, having scored the third-most sixes across the first five WBBL seasons. During a match at North Sydney Oval on 9 December 2017, Perry hit a ball into the crowd which struck a 13-year-old boy in the face. She immediately rushed to the boundary to check on the boy’s welfare and directed the on-field medics to his location. The boy, who was transported to hospital by ambulance for observation and later released, received a phone call from Perry the following morning. In another example of her literal destructive batting capabilities, Perry hit a six during a 13 November 2019 game in Launceston which smashed the windscreen of a nearby parked ambulance.

At the 2018 World Twenty20 in the Caribbean, Perry took the wickets of renowned danger players (such as Devine, Dottin and Nat Sciver) early in key matches on Australia’s way to another tournament triumph. In the match against India on 17 November, she became the first cricketer for Australia to play in 100 Twenty20 Internationals. Then, in the final against England on 24 November, Perry became the first Australian to take 100 T20I wickets. She also manufactured a run out during the championship decider as Australia comfortably claimed the title in an eight-wicket win.

Across WBBL|03, Perry led the league for most runs, scoring 552 at an average of 46.00. In the final on 4 February 2018, against the Scorchers again, she made 36 not out and hit the winning runs to secure the Sixers’ second-consecutive title.

On 22 May 2018, Perry played for the Supernovas in the inaugural Women’s T20 Challenge—an exhibition match in Mumbai serving as a potential precursor to a future female equivalent of the IPL. She took 2/20 off three overs then scored 13 not out in a final-ball victory.

On 24 February 2019 at Karen Rolton Oval, Perry scored her maiden ODI century, striking an unbeaten 107 against New Zealand. The breakthrough ton ended her triple-figure drought in white-ball internationals, having reached the nineties on four occasions previously (ending up not out in three of those instances).

In July 2019, Perry pulled off another all-conquering Women’s Ashes campaign. On 7 July at the St Lawrence Ground, she recorded the best bowling figures for an Australian in WODIs, finishing with seven wickets for 22 runs. Then on 19 July, in the first innings of the Test match at the County Ground, she set a new record for the most runs scored between dismissals in women’s Test cricket with 329 runs. She also became the fourth woman to hit two consecutive Ashes Test centuries after Betty Wilson, Enid Bakewell and Claire Taylor. On 28 July, she became the first player to achieve the all-round feat of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in T20Is. Perry was named Player of the Series in what was a comprehensive retention of the trophy for Australia.

Perry underwent hamstring surgery in the following week, with recovery expected to take six months. In April, she was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year for her performances in 2019.

Deciding to relocate to Melbourne in 2019 following her husband’s move to play Super Rugby for the Melbourne Rebels, Perry consequently signed with WNCL team Victoria. She made her debut on 7 January 2020 at the Junction Oval, making 24 runs and taking 1/20 from seven overs. Perry claimed figures of 3/17 in a two-run win (via the DLS method) against Tasmania on 23 January at the TCA Ground, earning her first Player of the Match award in Victorian colours.

Perry had an extraordinary WBBL|04, leading the league for most runs, scoring a record 777 at an average of 86.33. She was recognised by commentators for taking her game to “another level”, characterised by a marked increase in her strike rate to 121.21, up from 98.57 in the previous season. Her scoring potency manifested in two centuries—one in an epic run chase at North Sydney Oval against the Scorchers, the other via a late first innings onslaught against the Brisbane Heat at the SCG. She was named Player of the Tournament as the Sixers claimed a third-straight minor premiership. Perry was instrumental in a classic semi-final at Drummoyne Oval against the Renegades on 19 January 2019, which featured a thrilling last-ball run out to tie the game, scoring 54 not out and earning Player of the Match honours. In the resulting super over, she hit a six off the bowling of Molly Strano to send the Sixers into their fourth-consecutive championship decider. In the final against the Heat on 26 January, Perry again top-scored for her team but the Sixers fell just short of completing a three-peat when their total of 7/131 was chased down in the last over of the match.

The Sixers entered WBBL|05 as “hot favourites”, but they lost five-straight games in the back-half of the tournament and missed out on qualifying for finals for the first time after Perry sustained a shoulder injury. Although she was sidelined for several matches, Perry still had another prolific season with the bat, scoring a team-high 469 runs at an average of 93.80 and earning her fifth Team of the Tournament selection. In a match against the Melbourne Stars on 3 November 2019 at the WACA, she batted through an entire innings with Alyssa Healy—the pair put on a 199-run stand, setting a new record for the highest domestic women’s T20 partnership.

In January 2020, Perry was named in Australia’s squad for the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia. On 2 March, coming into what was effectively a knockout quarter-final match against New Zealand at the Junction Oval under an injury cloud, she put on a valuable 32-run stand with Rachael Haynes late in the first innings. Australia held on to win by four runs, although Perry suffered a torn hamstring while fielding which would force her to miss the rest of the tournament. She stayed on with the team in a mentor role for the remaining matches as Australia went on to claim a fifth World T20 championship by beating India in the final at the MCG. In the post-match ceremony, despite her physical ailments, Perry was able to make it on stage to accept her medal as a playing member of the squad and partake in celebrations with the team alongside a performing Katy Perry—with whom she had featured heavily in promoting the tournament.

In April 2020, amidst media speculation regarding a move to one of the Melbourne-based WBBL teams, Perry announced she had activated an extension clause in her contract to remain with the Sixers for a further two seasons.

With the Board of Control for Cricket in India adding another team for the 2019 edition, Perry had hoped to once again participate in the event. However, due to a breakdown in communications between Cricket Australia and the BCCI, all Australian players were excluded from the tournament. ESPNcricinfo reported this breakdown was part of a wider disagreement between the two boards that revolved around the BCCI’s insistence on CA honouring a touring commitment to play a men’s bi-lateral ODI series in India in January 2020. A disappointed Perry voiced support for her nation’s board, although Cricket Australia would eventually issue a public apology to her and the other affected players for a mishandling of the situation.

In February 2020, Perry was reported to hold a strong desire to play in the competition’s future instalments. However, she would miss the next opportunity later that year, with the BCCI electing to stage the T20 Challenge’s third edition in a delayed calendar slot (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) which clashed with the timing of WBBL|06.