I'll Handle The Pressure, Says New Leader Haynes

Tim Wigmore on the mindset of Rachael Haynes who takes over as Aussie skipper from the injured Meg Lanning

On Sunday, England will begin their attempt to regain the Women’s Ashes when they meet Australia at a sold-out Allan Border Field in Brisbane. But England will not have to worry about how to get out Meg Lanning, Australia’s captain and arguably the finest batter in the history of the women’s game.

Yes, Lanning is only 25 years of age. But consider what she has achieved: 11 centuries, more than anyone else, in 63 ODIs, at an absurd average of 54.52. To put that in perspective, the great Charlotte Edwards scored nine ODI centuries in 180 innings.

The only two women with a higher batting average than Lanning played in the Seventies and Eighties.

All of this emphasises the task facing Rachael Haynes. She has had a yo-yo international career, flitting between being in the Australian team and out of it. If her ODI record – 860 runs at 30.71 apiece, with seven half-centuries but no hundreds in 31 innings – is respectable enough, it is also a world away from Lanning’s record. Yet now Haynes is replacing Lanning as captain and, while she is at it, attempting to make up for Lanning’s runs, too.

“She’s one of the best batters in the world so any team that loses a player of that calibre, it’s hard to replace them,” Haynes says. “One of the great things has been how our team has responded to that. We’ve seen some fantastic performances in our domestic competition – the likes of Elyse Vilani, Nicole Bolton and Beth Mooney.”