Series against Pakistan chance for youngsters to prove their mettle: skipper Chamari

Chamari at practice in preparation for today’s first T20I against Pakistan

Captain Chamari Athapaththu (on left) watches her teammates warming up before practice

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka Women cricket captain Chamari Athapaththu said that the six-match white ball series against Pakistan commencing today at the Southend Club in Karachi affords her young players the opportunity to play against the best teams in the world and identify themselves as to where they stand in comparison.

“The ICC Women’s Championship 2022-2025 is important because we get the opportunity to play against the top ten countries in the world in a three-match ODI series against each of them,” said Chamari at a virtual media conference yesterday. 

“This is another good opportunity for us to qualify for the World Cup. There are a lot of young players in the side, and they will get the opportunity of playing against the top teams in the world and for them to identify themselves where they stand with them.”

The Sri Lanka Women cricketers will commence their white ball tour with the first of three T20 Internationals at Southend Club, Karachi today.

One of the areas that Sri Lanka have analysed and identified is that their dot ball percentage is high in both formats – fifty-over and T20I. 

“Teams like Australia, England and New Zealand even though their dot ball percentages are high their boundary percentage is high, so it covers up for them,” said Chamari. “Our problem is that we don’t have many boundary hitters. We have limited resources when it comes to players who can hit a six at any time during the game.

“Our game is to hit the ball to gaps and get the singles, twos and threes. The coach Hashan Tillakaratne has recognised that shortcoming and told us to identify what our game is and play accordingly. This series will show how much work we put into practice towards achieving that has been successful.”

Chamari said that although Sri Lanka are ranked below Pakistan, rankings were just a number. “The team that performs well on that day will win. Our batters are in good nick especially youngsters like Harshitha Madavi, Hasini Perera, Imesha Dulani and Kavisha Dilhari. I expect them to perform if we are to win.”

“Kavisha is a future match winning player for us. She is being spoken of around the world in the franchises I have played in. Although she started off as a bowler, she has proved that she can also bat by performing in the domestic tournament. She proved to the coach as well as the selectors what she is capable of. She has the chance to bat in the first five of the order in the future but at the moment her position is at number seven.”

Much of Sri Lanka’s success will depend on Chamari’s contribution with the bat. She has shouldered the responsibility as captain as well as being the team’s most experienced and successful batter. 

“I am used to playing under pressure as captain of the team and I know that I have some kind of pressure, but I love performing under pressure. I have done that as captain as well as when I was not the captain. I love to play with pressure.”

Chamari said they expected the wickets in Pakistan to produce spin, but the pitches they had got for practice have turned out to be batting friendly.

“After having three sessions of practice, what we have found out is that it is much hotter here than in Sri Lanka, it’s around 40 degrees plus Celsius. I don’t think the wickets will spin as much as we expected. Until we play on the surface tomorrow, we don’t know how it will react. I have an experienced bowling line up and they know how to bowl in this kind of conditions, I am looking forward to a good contest.”