Looking forward to 2022 which is going to be massive for us: Lanning

Melbourne: Australia women's team captain Meg Lanning has stated that 2022 will be a massive year for her team and she is looking forward to it.

In 2022, four major tournaments -- rescheduled ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup, Birmingham Commonwealth Games and women's Ashes -- are currently scheduled to be played.

The ODI World Cup was originally scheduled to be held in February-March next year in New Zealand but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been deferred until 2022 by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"No doubt we were disappointed the World Cup got pushed back by a year; we were gearing up for that as a bit of light at the end of the tunnel but at the same time we understand the decision. There's so much that goes into those things and probably a lot we don't know or understand and that's the decision the ICC has made," Lanning was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

"Now we're just looking towards 2022, which is going to be a massive year for us and could potentially be a couple of world tournaments in there and a Commonwealth Games. So that's something we're looking forward to and we'll get started with this series coming up and then build toward 2022," she added.

Australia are next scheduled to take on New Zealand in three ODIs and as many T20Is in September, the squad for which was announced by Cricket Australia on Friday.

Squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes, Maitlan Brown, Erin Burns, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry (subject to fitness), Megan Schutt, Molly Strano, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Belinda Vakarewa.