Melbourne Stars Women – Team Preview, Strength, Weakness, Key Players, WBBL 2024 Squad

We are just a couple of days away from the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) 2024 season. Meanwhile, the Australian veteran Meg Lanning led Melbourne Stars Women team will be looking to make a strong comeback in 2024 season.

The Melbourne Stars ladies had a season to forget back in 2023 when the team finished only 2nd to bottom in Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) 2023 points table. Melbourne Stars Women’s team won 6 matches out of 14 matches played in the league phase and finished 7th with 12 points on the board.

Going into the new WBBL 2024 season, the Stars have Australian veteran and captain Meg Lanning, Marizanne Kapp, Annabel Sutherland and Deepti Sharma among some notable names in the team. The Melbourne Stars Women’s team plays their first match of the Women’s Big Bash League 2024 season on the opening day itself in the third match of the season. They take on the Perth Scorchers Women’s team on 27th October, 3 P.M Indian Standard Time (IST). Before the new season begins, let’s take a look at Melbourne Stars Women’s team strength, weakness and 5 key players for the upcoming season.

Team Strength

1. Australian 32-years-old right-hand batter Meg Lanning is a veteran in the game and has loads of experience with the Australian team. Lanning is a great batter and captain having scored 3009 runs in 89 matches in the competition.

2. The Stars have a great bowling attack under their disposal. The duo of Sophie Day and Kim Garth are set to lead the bowling charge. The former has taken 53 wickets while the latter has bagged 21 wickets.

3. The Melbourne Stars Women’s team also boasts some quality all-rounders in their squad who can contribute with both bat and ball. The likes of Marizanne Kapp, Deepti Sharma and Annabel Sutherland are the star all-rounders in the team.

Team Weakness

1. The Stars side heavily rely on their captain Meg Lanning for a lot of the runs. Annabel Sutherland is another great source for runs, but other than the two, the team lacks some big scoring players.

2. The Melbourne Stars also lacks some quality middle-order batter other than Lanning and Sutherland. They have added Indian wicketkeeper batter Yastika Bhatia to fill-in that slot.

5 Key Players in WBBL 2024

Meg Lanning

Australian 32-years-old batter Meg Lanning, who is also the captain of the Stars side, is going to be a significantly player for the team. Lanning has loads of experience playing in the Women’s Big Bash League and for Australia. Lanning has scored over 3000 runs in the competition despite playing less than 100 matches. She scored 284 runs in 11 matches in the previous season.

Annabel Sutherland

The next star player in the Melbourne Stars Women’s team for the Women’s Big Bash League 2024 is Annabel Sutherland. The 23-years-old has gained huge prominence over the years and established herself as one of the best player for Australia and women’s game. Sutherland scored 288 runs in 14 matches last season and also picked 23 wickets.

Sophie Day

The 26-years-old left-arm slow orthodox spin bowler Sophie Day is going to be one of the leading bowler for the Melbourne Stars in the WBBL 2024 season. The English spinner bagged 27 wickets last season despite her team’s bad performance.

Deepti Sharma

The Indian women’s cricket team off-spin bowler Deepti Sharma will also play a significant role to help the Stars rise-up the ladder this season. The 27-years-old is capable all-rounder who can contribute with both bat and ball. In the Women’s Hundred 2024 season, Deepti scored 212 runs in 6 innings with a strike rate of 212.00 and also took 8 wickets.

Yastika Bhatia

Other than the duo of Meg Lanning and Sutherland, Melbourne Stars needed some good middle-order batter and thus they have brought in Indian women’s cricket team’s wicketkeeper batter . The 23-years-old left-hand batter is a great player for the short format. She scored 204 runs in 8 innings in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024 season.

Melbourne Stars Women’s WBBL Players 2024