Leader, batter, legend: Australia's 'megastar' Lanning calls it a day

Thirteen years after she first took guard for Australia, Meg Lanning, sport's trailblazing superstar, brought curtains on her storied career in an emotional press conference in Melbourne on Thursday. The 31-year-old appeared in 241 internationals (six Tests, 103 ODIS, 132 T20s) for Australia across formats, 182 of them as captain. She won seven World Cups, five as skipper, and also led Australia to a Commonwealth Games gold medal last year. With 8352 runs and 17 centuries across formats, Lanning is Australia's leading run-getter in women's cricket.

- Shantanu Srivastava

Lanning's legacy though goes way beyond her astonishing numbers. Aptly nicknamed 'Megastar', the Singapore-born cricketer's aggressive batting style and proactive captaincy made Australia a winning machine.

She made her international debut against New Zealand back in 2010. At the age of 18, she became the youngest Australian to score an international hundred, a 104 not out against England in Perth in 2011. The following year she smashed the fastest ODI century by an Australian, off 45 balls against New Zealand. The record stood for over a decade until Glenn Maxwell hit a 40-ball ton against the Netherlands in the ongoing World Cup.