Lanning tips 'really big World Cup' for Indian superstar
Former Australia captain Meg Lanning believes India’s star batter is primed to light up the upcoming ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.
Following a dominant chase from the visitors in the series opener, India’s win in the second ODI over Australia was historic as Smriti Mandhana’s 117 off 91 balls helped India post 292 before bowling out Australia for 190.
The century also came in right after the left-hander was crowned the world’s premier batter in the ICC Women’s ODI Batter Rankings.
The resulting 102-run victory was India’s first home ODI win against Australia since 2007 and Australia’s heaviest defeat by runs in ODI history.
Reflecting on that knock and her consistency at the top of the order, Lanning was full of praise for the 29-year-old batter and the impact she continues to have for the World Cup hosts.
“She’s got a lot of good cricket ahead of her, Smriti [Mandhana],” Lanning said, speaking to Sanjana Ganesan on The ICC Review.
“She’s already a world-class player, has been for a long time, and especially in this format of the game, she’s capable of really making those match-winning scores and those big hundreds, and they’re the players you worry about as an opposition team.”
“She’s shown that time and time again that she’s very dangerous and able to perform under pressure in big moments. So she’s setting herself up nicely for a really big World Cup.”
In assessing the challenges she poses, Lanning revealed how Australia geared up for the threat to contain Mandhana’s influence at the top of the order.
Despite diminished numbers in her three outings against Australia in World Cups, Mandhana still has an impeccable record at the top against the seven-time World Cup winners, racking up 791 runs in 18 outings with three hundreds to her name.
“She took up a lot of time in our planning meetings, that’s for sure,” Lanning recalled.
“She’s developed her game a lot as well. I think we’ve seen the Australians use Ash Gardner a lot up front to her in the past. I think off spin’s been a good match-up [against her]. So I think a lot of teams around the world will try and employ that.
The best of Smriti Mandhana | CWC22
“The conditions come into it a little bit. The wickets over there seem to be pretty good, but if there is a little bit more turn and spin in it, then yeah, you might see teams opening with spin a little bit more. But yeah, she’s certainly very difficult to bowl to.
“And as I said, she takes up a lot of time in terms of planning. So it’ll be interesting to see if any teams come up with anything different.”
India take on Australia on 12th October in Visakhapatnam, one of the blockbuster clashes of the tournament.