IN an announcement that shocked many in the cricketing world, Australian star Meg Lanning last week announced her retirement from international cricket.

While fans hope she has plenty of years on the domestic scene left, her days of pulling on the green and gold are over.

To celebrate such a fan favourite and pillar of the sport, let us take a look back at her career in the national team.

Neither of the would-be Australian captain’s T20 or ODI debuts were particularly memorable, but that was soon to change.

Her maiden T20 was against New Zealand in December of 2010, and although the Australians, known back then as the Southern Stars, won the match easily, Lanning only made 10 runs opening the batting alongside her future coach Shelley Nitschke.

Lanning’s One Day International (ODI) debut came a month later against England. Again opening the batting with Nitschke, she managed 20 runs before being caught behind.

Fortunately for Australia, it was not long before Lanning would become the world class batters Australian fans now know and love. In her second ODI she become the youngest player – either male or female – to score an international century, then only a year later broke the record for the fastest century by an Australian.

In the subsequent decade or so, her runs tally began to grow and her attacking nature of batting made her a household name.

From crisp cut shots, to imperious cover drives, fluid flicks off the pad and just about every other shot in the book, Lanning made batting look easy.

She ends her international career with over 8,000 runs to her name across the three formats.

Perhaps a sign of her prowess, it was not long before she rose to captain the national side.

In January 2014, after then-captain Jodie Fields copped an injury mid Ashes series, Lanning took the reigns and became Australia’s youngest ever skipper at 21 years old.

Across an almost decade-long run as captain of the national team, she guided the dominant side through one of its most successful periods ever.

Multiple World Cups in both formats, multiple Ashes wins, even a Commonwealth Games Gold Medal in there too – there was nothing that the Australians could not win.

In fact, particularly in T20s, the Australians would go months if not years without losing a match in the format.

One thing about Lanning’s career that many may have forgotten about was that she used to be a part-time bowler. She only bowled 36 overs across her career, but she was a wicket taker.

New Zealanders seemed to be her wickets of choice, with three of her five International wickets being White Ferns.

Her final match in Australian colours came in the T20 World Cup final earlier this year, where she helped guide her team home to win by 19 runs and add another World Cup title to an esteemed collection.