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"A Significant Challenge": Meg Lanning Hails India's Dominance At The Women's WC

Arnav Chopra

Meg Lanning and the Indian Women's Team (Source: @ICC, @BCCI/X.com)Meg Lanning and the Indian Women's Team (Source: @ICC, @BCCI/X.com)

With a few days left for the ICC Women's World Cup 2025 to begin, former Australian legendary skipper Meg Lanning has given her prediction for the upcoming championship. Speaking about the chances, she again backed Australia but picked India as strong opponents.

Lannings Calls India A Challenging Opponent To Australia

The defending champions, Australia, will again start as favourites in the upcoming ICC Women's World Cup 2025, set to begin on the 30th of September, which will be played in India and Sri Lanka, as the former Australian legendary skipper Meg Lanning has backed her side to win the eighth one.

However, during a podcast with the ICC, she was clear that India is a very strong opponent in this competition, as they have the right armoury in their lineup and the ability to win games. Something she mentioned was lacking earlier, but has now been worked on to ensure their winning percentage goes up.

Additionally, she mentioned that they have a good, talented lineup, and the only thing they lacked was something they have now worked on, which is working nicely in their favour.

“I know Australia has dominated a lot of it, but it's certainly not a foregone conclusion. I'd still love Australia to win obviously, but I think India are the main competitors. I think India are a significant challenge to everybody. Talent-wise, they're as good as anyone and I think they are really starting to understand how to win, which probably has been something for them to work on and I think they're doing that really nicely,” Lanning said.

Further mentioning, she praised skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and said that she expects the Indian side to come up as strong favourites in this competition.

“They (India) are well led by Harmanpreet Kaur and there are really good players who have got some good experience now. So I expect them to do well,” she added.

Lanning Believes Other Teams Are Competitive Too

Lanning then went on to mention England, South Africa, and New Zealand's names, as she believes that these three sides could also challenge the defending champions in their bid to defend the title, as she mentioned, that the beauty of this World Cup is that there are quite a few good competitive sides who can really cash in on their day.

“So you've got England, who are always strong. South Africa … who have done pretty well at recent World Cups, they seem to be able to get it together when it's important. And then, you can never write off New Zealand too. They showed in that T20 World Cup (2024) recently that if you time your run really nicely, then you never know what can happen," Lanning concluded.

As for the Women's World Cup, it will begin on the 30th of September with co-hosts India and Sri Lanka taking on each other in Guwahati, while on the 1st of October, Australia women will open their account against New Zealand women in Indore, whereas the final for the tournament is scheduled for the 2nd of November.