Meg Lanning is one of the best captains that Australian women produced. She decided to announce her retirement from international cricket in November 2023. After her retirement, Alyssa Healy has been appointed as the full-time captain of the Australian team across all formats.
Lanning talked about depression and fulling as the main reasons for her early retirement from international cricket. She is one of the successful captains and batters of the Australian women’s team led to various titles across formats.
After winning the Commonwealth Gold medal in the 2022 edition beating India, Lanning took a six-month break. She wanted to be away from bio-bubbles and chose to work at a coffee shop. Lanning returned to international cricket helping the Australian team win the record 6th T20 World Cup title in February 2023.
She suddenly withdrew from the Ashes 2023 on England soil for medical reasons. Australian team retained the prestigious series with 8-8. Australian women’s team got four points from one-off Test. Despite a closely fought series, Alyssa Healy led them to retain the Ashes series.
“I was over-exercising and under-fueling. I got to the point where I was doing about 85-90 km a week. I was in denial. It became a bit of ‘I am going to show you’ sort of thing,” Lanning told Mark Howard. “It sort of just spiraled. I was not in a place to be able to go on tour and play cricket and give the commitment levels required for that Ashes series mentally and physically.
“I got down to about 57kgs from 64kgs. The ratios were out of whack a lot. I did not realize (it affected) my ability to concentrate. I didn’t want to see other people. I disengaged a lot from friends and family.”
Lanning led to Australia winning major ICC titles
Under the captaincy of Meg Lanning, the Australian team won four ICC World T20 titles in 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020 and 2023.
The Australian team won the 50-over World Cup played in 2022 in New Zealand. Under her captaincy, they defeated England to win the title. She took indefinite cricket from cricket due to personal reasons. She led Australia to win the 2013 World Cup title in India.
Under the captaincy of Lanning, Delhi Capitals reached the finals of both the 2023 and 2024 Women’s Premier League. DC lost to Mumbai Indians in the 2023 edition while lost to RCB in the 2024 edition.
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