Aptly nicknamed "the Megastar", Meg Lanning has achieved an incredible amount for someone so young. In 2006 she became the first girl to play first XI cricket for a Public Schools team when she represented Carey Grammar at the age of 14. Her ODI debut came in 2011 against England, and in only her second game, she scored an unbeaten 103, becoming at 18 years and 288 days old the youngest Australian - male or female - to score an international century. A year later, in an ODI against New Zealand, she broke the record for the fastest century by an Australian, racking up her ton in a mere 45 balls.

Recognised as having a great cricket brain, in January 2014 Lanning became the youngest ever captain of Australia (aged 21) mid-Ashes after an injury to Jodie Fields. She led from the front to finish as her side's top run-scorer in the series. In April that year she led her team to their third consecutive World Twenty20 title, putting up a ferocious performance with the bat: she hit 44 in the final, and in the group match against Ireland, in a breathtaking performance, she slammed 126 off 65 balls, the second highest score in all men's and women's T20Is. She finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer (with 257 runs at a strike rate of 158.6). Later in 2014 she was at the forefront of her team's whitewashes of Pakistan and West Indies, with successive ODI scores of 95, 22, 135* and 84.

Thanks to her trademark aggressive style with the bat, Lanning can truly claim to be one of women's cricket's only household names. 2015 brought the excitement of being named as Wisden's inaugural Leading Female Cricketer in the World, as well as captaining her side to victory in the 2015 Ashes series. Lanning's fresh, innovative approach to captaincy was praised, particularly during the Canterbury Test match, which her side won by 161 runs.
Raf Nicholson