Asia Cup champions leave for T20 World Cup in UAE If we give off our best we can beat the best – Chamari

Women’s Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka led by star all-rounder Chamari Athapaththu left for the UAE yesterday with the hope of adding the ICC T20 World Cup to their gradually increasing list of silverware.

Sri Lanka is in a tough group – Group A with current champions and six times winners Australia, twice runner-up New Zealand and once runner-up India and Pakistan.

Sri Lanka has never made it beyond the first round of the tournament in any of the eight editions they have taken part. To do that they must finish in the top two in their group to qualify for the semi-finals. 

“It’s not an easy group. We know if we give off our best, we can beat even the strongest team in the world. In the past 7-8 months we have shown that,” said Athapaththu.

“We cannot take any team for granted in this format because anything can happen. So, we won’t take any team lightly. We have planned to take it match by match. We are currently focused on the first match (against Pakistan on 3 October at Sharjah). I have got a good squad of players with me. We practiced a lot under lights because two of our 4 matches are going to be played under lights. We are going to Sharjah ahead to get used to the conditions.”

Sri Lanka was in the UAE in May where they played in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup qualifier and won it defeating Scotland in the final. However, all their matches were played at Abu Dhabi which is not a venue for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Asked whether her team could repeat their Asia Cup success at the World Cup, Athapaththu replied, “Just because we won the Asia Cup it is no guarantee that you can do well in the World Cup. Most of our matches are in Sharjah. It has been a batting friendly wicket, but we don’t know until we go there, what type of wicket we will get. The information we have is that they have prepared new wickets, so I think there could be a difference. I have 14 of the 15 players that won the Asia Cup. There has been only one change. Experienced spinner Inoka Ranaweera has come in. We rested her for the series against West Indies and for the Asia Cup to try out some young players. We brought her back because for a tournament such as the World Cup we need experience.”

Under Head Coach Rumesh Ratnayake, who took over the women’s national team from the last T20 World Cup in 2023, Sri Lanka has made vast strides with victories over countries like New Zealand, England, South Africa, India, West Indies, Bangladesh and Ireland in this format.

“That is the confidence and the momentum we will take to the World Cup, but no guarantee. We have seasoned campaigners like India, Australia and New Zealand. We will do our best, take it match by match, portion by portion and win those special moments,” said Ratnayake.

“Our challenge would be the weather; it could be really warm. We’ll be looking at 39-40 degrees temperatures. We have two matches during the day and two at night. We expect the wickets to be dry and spin-oriented, although we have been told that it has been re-laid. We followed the recently concluded ODI series between South Africa and Afghanistan at Sharjah and have an idea how the wickets are playing.”

Ratnayake said Sri Lanka’s strength has been their bowling. “The heartening factor is the bowling has come through much better than what it was in the past 7-8 months, which means we are virtually a well-balanced unit. We have kept a pace bowler out but have the privilege of having Inoka Ranaweera back in the team. She has been our no. 1 bowler.”

The recent tour to Ireland, saw Sri Lanka produce two more centurions in their side Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshitha Samarawickrama. “Fortunate to have them in form. Quite confident going into the World Cup. Winning and losing is a different thing entirely. You’ve got to have that hunger. We are well prepared, but our only concern is we will be carrying two injured players.”

“Harshitha broke her ligament inside the web of her left hand when she dived to take a catch offered by Chamari Athapaththu in a Caribbean Premier League (CPL) women’s match. She was in plaster for two and a half weeks. She removed it only on Friday. She had a bat, and I was happy with her progress. She has another 10 days before our first match. She has to go through her fielding. Kavisha (Dilhari) pulled her right quadriceps during a practice game in Dambulla. She will be out for 2 weeks. We are taking her hoping to manage her because we don’t have replacements for those kinds of players. Kavisha, Harshitha, Vishmi and Chamari, replacing them will be tough. We have 21 players registered for the tournament and have 16 in our squad.” – (ST)