Women’s Asia Cup champions in ground breaking tour of Ireland

Sri Lanka Women’s cricket team on their historic tour of Ireland 

Anushka Sanjeewani will lead Sri Lanka in WT20I series​

• First bilateral T20I and ODI series with Irish
• Sanjeewani to lead Sri Lanka in WT20I series

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka women’s cricketers fresh from their Asia Cup triumph embarked on a historic tour to Ireland yesterday where they are due to play the host country in the first ever bilateral T20I and ODI series this month.

The two countries have met in these two formats before during ICC tournaments with Sri Lanka having a near perfect record of 3 wins out of 4 (1 no-result) in ODIs and 3 wins out of 3 in T20Is. The last encounter between these two teams was during the 2017 Women’s ODI World Cup Qualifier where Sri Lanka secured a decisive 146 runs win dismissing Ireland for 93 at the NCC grounds.

But all that is now part of history as this tour marks a significant milestone as it will be Sri Lanka’s first bilateral series in Ireland.

An interesting feature will be that Sri Lanka will commence the tour with the two-match WT20I series without their prolific run-scoring Captain Chamari Athapaththu who will not be available due to her commitments with Oval Invincibles in the Women’s Hundred in England where she is set to compete in all the group-stage matches. Athapaththu is set to link up with her national team mates for the WODIs which are part of the 2022-25 ICC Women’s Championship cycle starting 16 August. 

“We are in a very super situation where we are without Chamari for the WT20Is. But there won’t be any pressure on the rest of the team as they have adapted to it very well,” said Sri Lanka Women’s Head Coach Rumesh Ratnayake. “We have been simulating this scenario for the past one year. I think it will lift our game even further without her.”

Ratnayake said more than the WT20Is the team’s main focus would be the 3 WODIs where they hope to take the points forward. Sri Lanka are currently lying 5th in the standings with 20 points and Ireland at the bottom in 10th position with no wins.

In Athapaththu’s absence Sri Lanka will be led in the two WT20I matches by 34-year-old wicket-keeper/batter Anushka Sanjeewani who has represented her country in 77 WT20Is and 34 WODIs since 2014.

“Anushka is a well-balanced person, very strong inside. In the past 1 1⁄2 years I had about 2-3 people in mind and this girl came up trumps because she has a very calm and strong character which is a good example for others. She is a good deputy for Chamari,” said Ratnayake.

Sri Lanka has named their Women’s Asia Cup winning squad for the Ireland tour with the addition of a reserve wicket-keeper Kaushini Nuthyangana making it 16 players. In addition to serving as a backup for regular wicket-keeper Sanjeewani, Nuthyangana may even get a game as Sri Lanka do not have another batting replacement in the squad for Athapaththu.

Although the tour of Ireland will not be the best preparation for the T20 World Cup which is due to be held in Bangladesh in October it will certainly be in the back of the mind of the players. 

“The Ireland tour will be totally different to what we will have at the next T20 World Cup, we totally focus on adaptation. The World Cup certainly will be in the back of our minds. We will certainly discuss combinations, but our focus will be the moment,” said Ratnayake.

Sri Lanka women’s preparation for the Irish tour took place at Dambulla where they had two 3-day camps.

“We know that going to Ireland we have challenges like the weather and the wickets. We know their bowlers are tall. We had some match simulations where we managed to make maximum use of the wickets as well as having tall boys who came and played with us in those match scenarios,” said Ratnayake. “The girls adapted to all situations really well. It’s no guarantee but it is only a thing where we can come to the closest point of a match. That’s what we did when we went to England and to South Africa. We got some good wickets to play on in Dambulla. Grassy wickets which had lateral movement. Having been to England we know what to expect.”

SRI LANKA TOUR OF IRELAND ITINERARY

August 11: 1st WT20I at Dublin

August 13: 2nd WT20I at Dublin

August 16: 1st WODI at Belfast

August 18: 2nd WODI at Belfast

August 20: 3rd WODI at Belfast