All set to participate in upcoming Commonwealth Games with T20
And even with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup eight months away, India will be looking to start their campaign on a high.
This will be the first international assignment for Indian women since their disappointment in the 2022 Women’s World Cup.
Notably, the Indian team will be without the great Mithali Raj for the first time, who resigned from her post earlier this month after an illustrious career spanning 23 years.
On the personal front, skipper Harmanpreet will be eyeing the milestone.
The 33-year-old batsman, who has scored 2319 runs in 121 matches, needs another 46 runs to beat Mithali in the shortest format.
The spotlight will also be on vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet and coach Ramesh Powar, who registered a seven-match winning streak in the last T20 World Cup before India were knocked out in the semi-finals by South Africa.
Hosts Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will start the series on the back foot as they were thrashed 0-3 by Pakistan in a recent T20I series.
However, the Indians will have to be cautious against the likes of Sri Lankan stalwarts Oshadi Ranasinghe and Chamari Athapaththu.
The Indians last played a one-sided match in the shortest format against New Zealand in February this year, in which they lost by 18 runs.
Going into the series, Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma and pacer Pooja Vastrakar will infuse enough confidence due to their current form.
Going by the current form and world rankings, India will certainly start as the favorites against the island nation and the hosts will need to step up their game by leaps and bounds to trouble the Indians.
India skipper Harmanpreet said that fielding is one area they are emphasizing more on in the series against Sri Lanka.
“As a team, keeping this particular series against Sri Lanka in mind, we are currently working to improve on a few areas. While our main strength lies in our batting, we are looking to improve our fielding skills. making extra efforts.” Told.
“All our top batsmen and bowlers are fit for this series and we all hope to give our best in this series,” Harmanpreet said in the pre-match press conference.
The three-match T20I series will be followed by as many ODIs as are scheduled to be played on July 1, 4 and 7 at Pallekele.
Teams (from):
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Simran Bahadur, Yastika Bhatia, Rajeshwari Gaikwad, Richa Ghosh (WK), Sabbhineni Meghna, Meghna Singh, Poonam Yadav, Renuka Singh, Jemima Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav.
Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Nilakshi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Vishmi Gunaratne, Ama Kanchana, Hansima Karunaratne, Achini Kulsuriya, Sugandhaika Kumari, Harshita Madvi, Hasini Perera, Udeshika Prabodhani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Satya Sandipani, Anoushka Sanjeevani Ranveera, Inoka , Malsha Shahani, Tharika Sewandi.
The match starts at 2:00 pm.
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