Why Meg Lanning’s absence from Ashes no longer means crisis for Australia

T here was a time in the recent history of cricket that the Australian women’s team without Meg Lanning was unthinkable. The idea of playing a pivotal series such as the Ashes without her would have been a major cause for concern. As one of the original awardees of a marketing contract, she has long been a face of women’s cricket in Australia. So, it is not only her incredible prowess on the field that would be missed, but also her ability to raise the sport’s profile by presenting viewers with a recognisable face.

However, in the world of women’s sport, things are starting to move quickly. In recent years, the Australian chokehold over women’s cricket has been bordering on unbreakable. While Lanning is undoubtedly a player still in her prime and one of the most dominant batters, such is the strength of the game that her absence is no longer a particularly pressing concern.

Instead, the biggest talking point around Lanning’s unavailability for the one-off Test starting in Nottin gham this week due to an as-yet-unknown medical issue, has been the opportunity it provides for 20-year-old Phoebe Litchfield, a young batting prodigy from the New South Wales town of Orange. Litchfield burst on to the scene as a 16-year-old when she was signed by the Sydney Thunder and scored a half century in her second professional game. While she didn’t make an immediate impact on her T20 international debut, it was her one day international debut for Australia that got the world talking after she finished her first two matches unbeaten on 78 and 67.

The prominence T20 – particularly in women’s cricket – means many young stars coming through the ranks are best suited to the shortest format of the game when they first emerge. For Litchfield,