Captain Meg will take all the pressure, while I’ll have coffee: UP Warriorz head coach Abhishek Nayar | Cricket News

NAVI MUMBAI: It’s not easy to be the head coach of teams in both the Women’s Premier League (WPL) and the Indian Premier League (IPL). Former India and Mumbai allrounder Abhishek Nayar, in charge of both the UP Warriorz in the WPL and Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, is the first to do so. However, when it comes to the WPL, the former India assistant coach has found a simple way to ease his ‘workload.’Explaining why he chose to name Meg Lanning as the captain of UP Warriorz for WPL-4 during his team’s pre-season presser on Monday, Nayar termed the Australian legend, who thrice led the Delhi Capitals to the WPL final, as “the best mind out there in women’s cricket.”

“For me, she is the best mind out there in women’s cricket. So we are very happy to have her. I think something that was very important when we tried to form this squad was to get the best captain out there and someone who could lead this group. It was a very, very easy and obvious choice for us. Having Meg there makes things easier for me,” Nayar said. The Mumbaikar quipped that it’s Lanning who will “take all the pressure while he will be chilling, having coffee.” “Yes, it’s the first time for me (as a women’s team coach), yes. But I’ve always believed the best teams have the best captains. And this format, especially, is a captain’s format. So I wanted someone who could lead this team. And having Meg there makes things very easy for me because she’s going to take all the pressure. I’m going to be chilling, having coffee. So no pressure. I’m very excited,” Nayar said.The WPL stint is of course, a new start for Nayar. “It’s a new journey for me in women’s cricket. But nothing changes. It’s still cricket. It’s still about the players. It’s not about the coach. So I’m here to support her and the team in the best way possible. And hopefully, we can create a legacy of our own,” he said.Lanning, as a player, won two ICC Women’s Cricket World Cups and five ICC Women’s T20 World Cup titles. As captain, she led Australia to T20 titles in 2014, 2018, 2020 and 2023 and one ODI World Cup crown in 2022.One of the most consistent performers in WPL too, Lanning has amassed 952 runs in 27 matches, forming a hugely successful opening partnership with Shafali Verma at Delhi Capitals.Geared up for the new challenge, Lanning, who was bought by UPW for Rs 1.9 cr at the WPL auction, said, “I’m very excited to join UP Warriors and to be able to work with Abhishek and the group. I think we’ve assembled a really nice squad. We’ve got some really good balance there with experienced players. We’ve also got Deepti (Sharma) and Harleen (Deol) coming in, who will provide us with some good experience and depth there, and then some good, younger players as well. The team did a great job in putting the list together. We’ve covered a lot of different bases, and now we just get the opportunity to go out there and play and express ourselves and have some fun.”‘Navgire extremely hard to stop when she gets going’ Lanning is excited to work with UPW’s young guns, India pacer Kranti Goud and explosive batter Kiran Navgire, who smashed the fastest-ever century (off 33 balls) for Maharashtra against Punjab. “I have seen her from the other side the last few years and it looks like she is extremely hard to stop when she gets going. The fact that it has been an excellent domestic season for her so far is great, coming with a lot of confidence and often cricket is based a lot around confidence so I am really excited to see what she can do for us this year,” Lanning said.“I am super excited to see what Kranti she has got and I will be backing her to be able to execute and do well,” she added.Having played the past three seasons of the WPL, Lanning has a fair idea about how the standard of Indian women’s cricket has improved over the years-India’s historic, maiden triumph in the Women’s ODI World Cup last year being a reflection of that. India’s players are now making significant contributions in their teams’ WPL wins. “I think the biggest thing that I have seen is just the depth and the amount of Indian players who are able to contribute and win games for their teams. Probably in the early part of the tournament, it was probably reliant on the internationals a fair bit and the big Indian players. Whereas now you have got contributions from a number of different people and they are putting pressure on the big stars which is really good to see. So, that has been one of the biggest points is that you have got so many more players now who can perform at the level required,” Lanning said.She felt that the WPL had “exposed India’s players to high-pressure situations.” “So that creates some really good depth for Indian cricket and we have obviously seen that with the success at the World Cup. So that is probably one of the things. The other thing is just exposing more players to high pressure situations. That is what the WPL has done. There is a lot of eyes watching every game and there is a lot of increased media attention and things like that. So the more you do that the more you get used to it and the better you get. I think we have seen that throughout the three tournaments that everyone is getting used to that a little bit more and thriving under those conditions,” Lanning explained.Having played for Australia from 2010-23, Lanning was naturally upset at Australia’s stunning defeat to Australia in the 2025 Women’s ODI World Cup semifinals? Did it even prompt the 33-year-old to male a comeback? “Obviously, I still know a fair few people in the team as well. I would have loved for them to be able to win that game and win the World Cup. That is the nature of elite sport. There are so many good teams out there now. That is just because everyone is developing. We have got programmes and tournaments in place that allow people to play better and keep developing their skills. It creates a good challenge for Australia to keep improving and work out how we can win more World Cups. Ultimately, that is what you want to do,” Laning said.“It is great for the game, I think. It has obviously been difficult to watch. I would have loved Australia to win. That is the way it goes. We will try and win the next one,” she said.‘Excited to work with Shikha Pandey’Apart from Kanti, Lanning is confident in the abilities of her other prominent Indian fast bowler, veteran pacer Shikha Pandey. “I am really excited to work with Shikha again. I thoroughly enjoyed playing alongside her previously and she is just very experienced. She knows her game really well. She knows what her strengths are and what her different options are as well and very cool and calm under pressure and often in this format you are under the pump a lot as a bowler so I think she provides that for our team. I think she will be able to lead our pace bowling attack and provide some real good guidance for those bowlers there and help me in that role as well. She has shown that she is a proven performer across the whole innings,” Lanning said. “She can open the bowling, she can bowl through the middle and she can finish at the death. As a captain to have someone like that in your team, that just makes my job a little bit easier…I’m looking forward to another great season from Shikha,” she added.