Legendary Australia batter Meg Lannning has come out in full praise of three Indian cricketers for their performances in the recently-concluded Women’s World Cup 2025.
India clinched their maiden Women’s World Cup by defeating South Africa by 52 runs in the finals in Navi Mumbai on November 2, lifting their first-ever ICC title.
Lanning commended the all-round impact which all-rounder Deepti Sharma brings into matches and at different junctures of contests. She opined that Deepti is one of the few players who delivers on almost all occasions while put in a pressure situation.
“She’s able to really impact games now with both bat and ball. I think the other really good thing for the Indian team is that it can be at different points in the innings. There’s no really set way that she can be successful. It can be across the whole game. To have someone like that in your side who can perform under pressure and at any point in the game, she’s shown that she can do that pretty consistently. No doubt, (she) has become a very important player for India,” stated Lanning, as quoted by The ICC Review.
Lanning, who has played alongside Shafali Verma at Delhi Capitals for three seasons now in the Women’s Premier League, said she ‘wasn’t surprised’ by the aggressive manner in which she batted in the two matches she featured in.
“I wasn’t surprised by the way she played at all. I think she’s been very successful over a few years now playing an aggressive style of cricket and looking to hit the ball really hard straight down the ground. I watched a bit of her innings in the final and I could see very early on that she was trying to target the sight screen down the ground and look to play with that vertical bat and when she does that, it’s pretty hard to stop,” she added.
Furthermore, the Australian great lauded how Jemimah Rodrigues took ownership during the high-octane run-chase against the Alyssa Healy-led side in the semi-final to play an anchoring innings and staying till the end to guide her team through, while making history as arguably the best run-chases ever in an ICC event.
“I wanted Australia to win that game, to see Jemi perform like she did was really impressive, under a lot of pressure, for a number of different reasons. But to be able to, on that stage, hold your nerve and guide the team home, not just get to the 100 and then leave it to other players. She took that responsibility and made sure she was there till the end,” concluded Lanning.
For the unversed, Lanning was not among the five retentions by Delhi Capitals Women ahead of the WPL 2026. It will be interesting to see if the Delhi-based side bids for her at the auction table in the mega event on November 27.
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