[3] The family then relocated to the Gold Coast in 2001, where Billy began playing cricket for Southport-Labrador[4] and attended The Southport School (TSS).

He represented his home state of Queensland in the 2013 under-19 national championships and took fourteen wickets in three matches, including bowling figures of 6/30 and 5/40.

[3] Stanlake was named in Queensland's squad for the first time for the 2015–16 Matador BBQs One-Day Cup,[16] and he made his List A debut on 5 October 2015 against Tasmania.

[18][19] Because of his injury history, Stanlake did not start the 2015–16 Sheffield Shield season in Queensland's team, but after he took figures of 4/26 playing grade cricket for Gold Coast he was brought into the side.

[21][22] During the mid-season break for the 2015–16 Big Bash League Stanlake played for South Australian team the Adelaide Strikers.

[27] The selectors for Australia's national team decided to rest their fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in January 2017 because of an upcoming tour of India,[28] and they felt that Stanlake's unusual height and fast pace could both be strong assets in international cricket,[29] so he was named in Australia One Day International (ODI) squad for their series against Pakistan.

[31] He was struck down by illness after bowling just three overs,[32] but bounced back in his second match to take his first wicket, dismissing Shoaib Malik.

[34] He made his T20I debut for Australia against Sri Lanka at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 17 February 2017,[35] but he was dropped from the side immediately because of his disappointing bowling performance of 0/41.

[36] In February 2017, he was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for the 2017 Indian Premier League for 30 lakhs,[37] and in April he was given a Cricket Australia contract.

Stanlake finished with figures of 3/15, only conceding one boundary in his four overs, and was named the man of the match for the first time in just his second Twenty20 International.

[45] However, in April 2018, Stanlake suffered a fractured finger during an IPL match against Chennai Super Kings, ruling him out of the rest of the tournament.

[52] Stanlake comes from a sporting family with his father Warren a former VFL player for Footscray[3] and his brother Jack formerly contracted with the Gold Coast Football Club, though he never played an AFL match.