Australian women's cricket team suffered a major blow as skipper Meg Lanning was ruled out of the side's final Women's World Cup group stage fixture against South Africa due to a shoulder injury. The 25-year-old, who is tournament's second highest run scorer so far, was also forced to miss Australia's clash against Pakistan on July 5 because of the same reason which she has been dealing with for quite some time now.
Earlier this month, coach Matthew Mott had revealed that in order to manage Lanning's shoulder pain, the plan was to sideline the skipper for at least one match during the World Cup.
"We've been managing Meg for the last couple of months, the shoulder's been giving her a bit of grief," says Mott.
"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," he added of Lanning, who notched up 328 runs from five innings at a remarkable average of 109.33.
As a result, Rachael Haynes, who is the only specialist batter outside of Australia's first choice playing XI, will come as a replacement for Lanning and captain the side in today fixture.
With ANI Inputs.
