Australian Women’s team suffers a huge blow

The defending champions of the Women’s World Cup have had a good run in the tournament so far. But they suffered a huge blow ahead of the game against South Africa, as their skipper Meg Lanning had been ruled out with a shoulder injury. Earlier in the tournament, she also missed the clash against Pakistan on July 5.

The 25-year-old, has been dealing with the shoulder injury for some time now. It has been a serious trouble for the team to replace her, as even with the injury, she has been Australia’s leading run-scorer in the tournament. The world’s No. 1 batter has played many match-winning knocks in the tournament so far including an unbeaten 152 against Sri Lanka.

Coach and teammates on the injury

The whole team and the coaching staff is a little worried for the skipper. Coach Mathew Mott had already revealed that the skipper Lanning could miss some of the matches in the tournament as it is a very busy schedule for the team. “We’ve been managing (Meg) for the last couple of months, the shoulder’s been giving her a bit of grief,” Mott said earlier this month.

“We always envisaged that she was going to miss a game or two through the tournament, we’re just trying to manage the shoulder through. It was a conservative decision, I think she’ll be fine going forward,” she added.

Her teammates were also concerned for their skipper as she is an important member of the team. “She’s a trooper,” Australia wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy said of Lanning this week.

“She’s been doing unbelievably well for a fairly long period of time. She’s our leader and it’s nice to have her on the park. She can smack a 70-odd with one arm, unbelievable player. And hopefully we can get her through to the end of the World Cup,” added Alyssa.

Australia’s performance so far

Australia has had a terrific tournament so far as they have lost only a single game against England. They have only one match left against South Africa before going into the knockout stages. Both Australia and South Africa have already qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament.