Australian T20 World Cup-winning captain Meg Lanning returns to the Melbourne Stars for the upcoming Women’s Big Bash League after playing three seasons for Perth Scorchers. Lanning started her WBBL career with Melbourne Stars and then moved to Perth Scorchers for a three-year stint.
Meg Lanning move was delayed due to the COVID pandemic but now has been officially completed. Lanning is widely regarded as the best T20 batsman in the world. While playing for the Stars she was the tournaments highest scoring player for two years in a row scoring 1,062 runs in her two years at Melbourne before departing for Perth. At Perth, Lanning suffered a severe shoulder injury but in the following two years she managed to score an impressive 920 runs. Only five players have scored more WBBL runs than Lanning.
The Melbourne Stars finished bottom of the table last WBBL with just two wins from 14 matches. They are also the only WBBL team to have never reached the finals. The signing of Lanning should help the team get rid of their slump in the WBBL. Lanning is not the only new signing, the Stars have signed six players, including Lanning, and also acquired a new coach Trent Woodhill.
Great News for @StarsBBL
Australia women’s captain Meg Lanning will return to the Melbourne Stars for the Women’s Big Bash League following three seasons with the Perth Scorchers.#WBBL #WBBL06 pic.twitter.com/65PUkIBsKD
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) July 22, 2020
Lanning said she is looking forward to work with Trent Woodhill. “His knowledge of the T20 game and to have worked with so many great players and different franchises in different tournaments is a great experience to have,” Lanning said. “So I’m certainly looking forward to working with him and seeing what his philosophy is on T20 cricket especially.
Lanning also took time to thank her former club’s fans for their support. “I’d like to thank everyone in Perth for their support during my time there but it’s great to be back in Melbourne.”
“I’m proud to have been part of the first couple of years at the Melbourne Stars and I’m looking forward to getting back involved with the club. We’ve got an exciting group and I can’t wait to start working with those players and the coaching staff as well.”
Woodhill is ecstatic to have a star like Lanning in the squad. “Having Meg back at the Stars is huge, it’s almost like starting again. It’s the chance for the Stars to reset. We won’t be putting too much pressure on Meg to be the star of the show, but we know Meg is a star of world cricket.”
“We want to be able to provide her with the environment where she can thrive, and bring out the best in her by having as much fun as possible through success and establishing a winning culture.”
The WBBL is scheduled to start on October 17 and this edition of the WBBL will be the most televised one in the history of WBBL after women’s gained a lot of traction in Australia after the Aussies successful T20 World Cup campaign
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