After being selected for Victoria’s side for their
initial two matches against Western Australia in Perth on September 26 and 28,
Australia skipper Meg Lanning is set to make her long-awaited comeback to
cricket in the WNCL.
Lanning will travel to Perth in an effort to play her
first competitive match since March, having missed the women’s Ashes series
owing to an undisclosed medical ailment. She will need Victoria’s medical
department to give her the final okay before she is cleared to play in the WNCL
opener.
After pulling out at the last minute prior to the
England tour, Lanning hasn’t played for Australia since the T20 World Cup in
February and hasn’t played anywhere since the WPL in India in March.
Shawn Flegler, Australia’s women’s national selector,
announced that Lanning would return to domestic cricket and did not include her
in the selections for the upcoming home T20I and ODI series against West
Indies. She recently travelled to Queensland for a preseason vacation and has
been working out with Victoria.
“We’re hopeful that she’ll come through domestic
cricket first up, and we’ll see how things progress through there,”
Flegler said earlier this month. “She was up at the Sunshine Coast, and we
caught up there. She’s progressing well. Just part of that return-to-play plan,
we’re keen for her to come back through domestic cricket first and see how she
goes with that but she’s going well, Meg. Very hopeful that she’s back on deck
at some point during the summer for Australia.”