Sri Lanka Women’s team return to Pakistan after 15 years

The Sri Lanka women's cricket team's tour to Pakistan will be of significance and history as they will be returning to the trouble-prone land after little over a decade-and-a-half. Prior to this, the Lankan ladies last toured their Asian counterparts in 2006 for an Asia Cup tournament.

Though, both the teams have played each other in between, this would only be the second such time the Sri Lankan women’s team will be in Pakistan after a very long lapse.

Chamari Athapaththu, leading her side, comes into the contest in cracking form. She, in fact, played a determining role in her team gaining a ticket to the Commonwealth Games (CWG). In the senior's company comes Imesha Dulani, with the hopes of her senior cap. Apart from a handful of changes, the team remains largely unchanged given the recent success they have been tasting.

Athapaththu would be travelling with a side of five young batters under the age of 30. The young batters aside Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Ama Kanchana and Achini Kulasuriya, will be strengthening the batting department.

The 36-year-old veteran in the side, Udeshika Prabodhani, will be utilising her expertise in leading the fast bowling unit, along with fellow senior Oshadi Ranasinghe. The spinning department would be comprising Inoka Ranaweera, Sugandika Kumari and rookie Sachini Nisansala, still 20. Nisansala has featured in only four matches so far.

The women's team's last six months has been topsy-turvy. Real misfortune hit them hard when their slot in the recently-concluded Women's World Cup was snatched away due to the beyond the control odds of Covid-19.

However, they sought consolation and compensation after booking the CWG set to start in July. Ahead of embarking onto this tour, the team faced its own security fears. After Sri Lanka was rocked and wreaked havoc by riots, their warm-up sessions for tomorrow and Tuesday were cancelled citing security concerns, based on media reports.

However, Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva said they would be in training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday at Colombo. The tour is a combination of three T20s and as many ODIs.

The ODI series will be played under the ICC Women’s Championship and the team will be departing on the morning of May 19. The T20s will be played at Karachi on May 24, 26 and 28, followed by the three ODIs, all to be played under lights at the same venue on June 1, 3 and 5.