We are going over there to win gold: Meg Lanning on Commonwealth Games 2022

The Australian women's team skipper Meg Lanning has said that the team's ultimate goal is to secure a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2022, scheduled to be played from July 28 to August 8.

The game of cricket has been included for the first time in the CWG since the men's 50-0ver matches were played in the 1998 edition at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Then, the South African team were the winners of the coveted medal. 

However, only women's matches have been scheduled in this edition, which will be played in a T20 format, consisting of a total of eight teams. 

Last year, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the games played in the Tournament would hold T20I status.  

Lanning has hoped that the reigning World Cup champion team will be going all guns blazing to win their maiden yellow metal in the Games. 

"We are going over there to win gold, and there's no doubt about that. We go out there to win every game that we can, and the first Commonwealth Games medal up for grabs in women's cricket is certainly something we're striving for," Meg was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

Lanning reckoned that the Australian team is trying to achieve more consistency in the shortest format and push the ceiling with their performances. 

"It's something we have spoken about as a group as a whole and also within our skill groups as well, in terms of how do we get that little bit better and push the boundaries that little bit more than we have in the past."

Lanning opines on playing under new head coach Shelley Nitschke

The 3o-year stated that it would be a little different under Shelly Nitschke, as compared to the former coach Matthew Mott. However, Lanning feels the team will still have the same mindset to play the aggressive brand of cricket with the utmost freedom. 

"It is going to look and feel slightly different with Shell in charge as opposed to Motty. But both similar messaging in terms of how we want to play the game, take the game on, we certainly want to go out there and be aggressive and play with a lot of freedom," said Lanning. 

The 2022 ODI World Cup winners are placed along with India, Pakistan and Barbados in Group A. They will start their campaign against Women in Blue on July 29.