Lanning credits hiatus as potentially career-saving

Meg Lanning believes her cricket career may only have lasted another year had she not made the shock call to step away from the game last August.

Lanning, who has hit back-to-back fifties against Pakistan since returning to the national side, also revealed she made the snap decision after a match against the same opponent during the Commonwealth Games.

The Australian captain, interviewed by deputy Alyssa Healy in a Fox Cricket exclusive, shared further details of the lead-up to her hiatus and how she spent her time away, having already detailed her stint working in a Melbourne café and overseas travels when she fronted reporters in Brisbane last weekend.

Lanning surprised the cricketing world when she announced she would take indefinite leave just days after leading her country to Commonwealth Games gold.

She sat out the Weber WBBL and Australia’s five-game tour of India in December, before returning in time for the current limited-overs series against Pakistan and the upcoming T20 World Cup in South Africa.

Lanning has returned to the game refreshed and with unfinished business, but the Victorian does not believe that would have been the case had she kept playing through the second half of 2022.

"I believe I've got a longer time in the game now," Lanning said.

"I think if I kept going, I could have played for maybe one more year, and I might have hated it, and that might have been it.

"I took the break, not knowing what was going to happen, but having come back now, I think it's actually extended the time that I will be involved in the game."

Lanning was bowled by Sadia Iqbal for four in the Commonwealth Games group stage match against Pakistan, which Australia won by 44 runs on their way to an eventual gold medal.

But the 30-year-old admitted she first started to question her future following the one-day World Cup in New Zealand in March and April; a campaign that had consumed Australia for five years after their shock early exit at the 2017 event.

"It mostly snuck up on me," she said.

"After the World Cup in New Zealand, I probably didn't realise this at the time, but everything had sort of been leading to that.

"And then we won the World Cup, which is what we wanted to do ... and after that it was like 'now what?'

"Throughout (the Commonwealth Games) I found myself thinking about a lot of things and I was struggling to come up with many answers to all the questions that I had.

"I snapped on the decision.

"It was after the Pakistan game in the Comm Games. I don't know why.

"But until that point I was massively overthinking. There's a lot of time to think on you're way on tour and when it's not overly positive, it can be a little bit consuming.

"It was a slow build, and then a bang to set it off."

Lanning confessed she did not miss cricket or feel tempted to pick up a bat for the first few months of her break, and ultimately went off social media during the WBBL to keep her mind off the game.

But over time, she realised the hunger was still there, and there was still plenty to achieve.

Off the field Lanning has also found better balance and is determined to stick to her fresh mindset and approach as she returns to life on the road.

"When I get out there, I get filled with white-line fever and really competitive and I'll always have that," she said.

"But it's not wasting too much energy on things that you can't really control.

"I don't think I was very good at switching off from cricket.

"I feel like I've been switched on for 12 years and that's not a very sustainable way to go about it.

"So I've been working on trying to do that a little bit better when I have the opportunities to do it."

CommBank ODI Series

Monday Jan 16:Australia won by eight wickets (DLS method)

Wednesday Jan 18:Australia won by 10 wickets

Saturday Jan 21:North Sydney Oval, 11:05am AEDT

Buy #AUSvPAK ODI tickets here

Australia ODI squad: Meg Lanning (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland

Pakistan ODI squad: Bismah Maroof (c), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Naseem, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Kainat Imtiaz, Muneeba Ali, Nashra Sandhu, Nida Dar, Omaima Sohail, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Sidra Nawaz, Tuba Hassan