Meg Lanning is one of the most revered and respected cricketers in Women’s International Cricket. She has been known for her steel nerves and calming presence under pressure.
She built Austrailia Women’s team over the past 8-9 years as an invincible team. Post 2001-2008 Men’s team, Australia produced another invincible Women’s team and Meg Lanning has huge hand in it.
She became youngest-ever captain for Australia in 2014 and continued to manage great talents on field, incredibly. Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy, Ashleigh Gardner and many superstars went on to realise their full potential under her.
She has become the most successful captain ever with 2 ODI World Cup titles and 5 T20I titles. Also, she won Gold Medal at Common Wealth Games, 2022 for Australia.
She plays for Victoria in Australia domestic leagues. She currently plays for Melbourne Stars in WBBL and Delhi Capitals in WIPL. At 31, she seemed to have lot more cricket left in her.
Australia has been planning to groom their next captain under. But she emotionally announced her retirement.
Meg Lanning shocked and surprised everyone, when she announced her retirement from International Cricket, effective immediately. She stated that she is not someone to play half-hearted cricket. She stated that she has lost inspiration to put in the work that is required to play International Cricket.
She could continue to play in Leagues and also domestic cricket. She kept taking breaks from International Cricket from past one year and she even worked as a batista at a coffee shop.
Meg Lanning with her batting provided solid base for Australian middle-order. She thanked her teammates and Cricket Australia for giving her opportunity to play for 13 years at the top level.
At retirement, she scored 3,405 runs in T20I 132 matches. She is currently, second highest scored in T20Is and she scored 4,602 runs in 103 ODIs. She is second cricketer to have a batting average over 50, other than Mithali Raj.
Well, she has been a legendary leader and as many leaders do, when they think they cannot deliver their best, they just walk away. Meg Lanning did the same and we wish her a great success, in whatever she chooses to do, next.