WPL: Meg Lanning praises young guns Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, says she's excited to work with them

As we approach the start of the maiden edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), everyone’s looking forward to watching Delhi Capitals get into action. Led by the Australian Meg Lanning, Delhi has some firework in its batting in the Indian duo of Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues. While it was Lanning’s Australia that lifted the recently-concluded T20 World Cup in South Africa, India’s Jemimah also made headlines for her star performances in crunch games. Her unbeaten 53 against Pakistan helped India win the opener by seven wickets, whereas, she scored a fighting 43 off 24 balls against Australia in the semis too, which India lost by five runs.

On the other hand, young and attacking opener Shafali Verma, who made history by leading India to its maiden U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup title in January, will also join forces with Meg and Jemimah at Delhi Capitals for the inaugural edition. Verma, who had a quiet T20 WC with the bat, is a force to reckon with in world cricket, something her newly-appointed captain Lanning is thoroughly aware of. Talking highly of these two, Lanning, who is a veteran captain with five ICC World Cups to her name, said she’s excited to work with both.

ALSO READ:WPL: Australian captain Meg Lanning named Delhi Capitals skipper for inaugural season

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Speaking about Rodrigues first, Lanning said she is a vibrant character and other than being a great batter, she has some good leadership skills too.

“I'm excited to work with Jemi (Jemimah Rodrigues). She is a very vibrant character, brings a lot of energy and she is obviously a great player and has good leadership quality as well. I certainly will be leaning on her a fair bit in terms of bringing the squad together and getting to know people and on-field stuff too,” Lanning said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Whereas, for Verma, the experienced Aussie captain showered some praises saying the young right-hander is nothing short of an incredible player having played some eyebrow-raising cricket already. Lanning added saying that Shafali has a good understanding of the game, and that she cannot wait to stand at the other end and watch Shafali tore apart the bowling line up of other teams.

“Shafali is an incredible talent and has already played some incredible cricket. A lot of understanding of the game and having an immediate impact on the game comes with experience. She's getting there. I can't wait to stand at the other end and watch her whack other teams around the park instead of setting the field which I have done for a few years. She's learning a lot, she's learning very quickly and she's a super talent. I can't wait to play alongside her and see her dominate,” Lanning added.

Delhi Capitals will play its first match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on March 5th at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.