Alongside the Mumbai Indians (MI), another team that has been in great form are the Delhi Capitals (DC). Barring their loss to MI in their third Women's Premier League (WPL) 2023, the Capitals have secured wins in their opening two games and will hope to continue this form throughout the tournament.
One player who has been credited with an uptick in her batting is Indian opener Shafali Verma, who is currently fourth on the list for the most runs in the competition, i.e the Orange Cap award. And former Indian cricketer Reema Malhotra has credited her opening partner and DC and Australia skipper Meg Lanning for Shafali's performances in the WPL 2023 this season.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, Malhotra is of the opinion that Lanning has influenced the Indian batter's performance and hence there has been a marked uptick in her form. The former cricketer also added that Lanning is the ideal candidate for the overseas captain in the league as she has the experience of winning World Cups.
"It has been the Meg Lanning effect (Shafali's improvement). I had said before too that if ever you want to appoint an overseas captain for a WPL side, it has to be Meg Lanning. She has the experience of winning World Cups as a captain, something Mooney and Healy don't have."
"The change in Shafali was visible in the first innings that she played. You could see that calmness in her approach and was taking calculative risks because Lanning was scoring runs from the other end," Malhotra said.
The former batter added that Verma also needs to learn consistency like Lanning. "The one thing that I hope she learns from Lanning is consistency. She scored big in the first game but failed in the next two. She needs to play her natural game but also score consistently. She is putting effort in her fielding and I feel after this WPL, there will be a lot of improvement in a number of Indian players."
The explosive duo have forged a strong opening partnership for the Capitals. In their first game against RCB, they set up a 162-run partnership for the first wicket. While Shafali is fourth on the Orange Cap list, Lanning is currently on top, with 183 runs in the WPL 2023 to her name while Verma has 103.
