Women cricketers begin quest to gain automatic qualification for WC 2025

• Winning ODI series against Pakistan of utmost importance: Head coach Hashan

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka women cricketers will begin their quest to gain automatic qualification for the 2025 Women’s Cricket World Cup with a six-match tour of Pakistan starting later this month.

Sri Lanka Women's Coach Hashan Tillakaratne

Achini Kulasuriya

Imesha Dulani

The squad of 15 picked for the tour sees two changes from the side that was so successful in the Commonwealth Games Qualifiers in Malaysia. Vishmi Gunaratne and Tharika Sewwandi have been replaced by Achini Kulasuriya and Imesha Dulani.

Sri Lanka Women’s head coach Hashan Tillakaratne said that 16-year-old Vishmi is unavailable as she is sitting for her G.C.E. O/L examinations while Tharika has been dropped from the squad.

The squad will commence practices from today at the P Sara Oval before going into a bubble from 10 May. The team is due to leave for Pakistan on 19 May.

“We are starting our circle of gaining automatic qualification for the 2025 World Cup from the Pakistan tour. We need to do well and get the points. If we can get points we don’t have to qualify for the World Cup. We are currently placed tenth and we have to get within the first six to gain automatic qualification. Pakistan is the first leg towards achieving that target,” said Tillakaratne.

“We have already qualified for the next Women’s T20 World Cup in 2023 January, our concern is the three 50-over games, although all six matches are important for our rankings.” Sri Lanka will begin the tour with three T20Is from 24 May followed by three ODIs. All matches will take place at Southend Club in Karachi.

“Our main concern in the batting is taking up challenges, reducing the number of dot balls, to play freely and running between the wickets which have shown some improvement. In bowling it is the wicket-taking options and assessing situations. Fielding is another area we are working very hard at. If we play to our potential I am very much confident that we can win the series,” said Tillakaratne.

Sri Lanka’s ODI and T20I squads don’t have much of a big difference as most of the players figure in both formats. “The players have realized the changes needed to be made for the 50-over and T20 formats so there is not much of a difference in the squads. We change our batting order according to situations in the T20 format.”

Tillakaratne said the competition level of the Women’s inter-club 50-over tournament that was concluded recently was ‘very poor’ and called for a much stronger competition.

“Sri Lanka Cricket has done a wonderful job to organize this tournament. My feeling is that the tournament is below par and the competition level is very poor. We need to step up the competition levels so that the national players who are taking part in the tournament will have stronger competition. At the moment there is no competition at all.”

Sri Lanka Women squad to Pakistan

Chamari Athapaththu (Captain), Harshitha Madavi, Hasini Perera, Nilakshika de Silva, Anushka Sanjeevani, Kavisha Dilhari, Ama Kanchana, Sachini Nisansala, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Sugandika Kumari, Achini Kulasuriya, Prasadini Weerakkody, and Imesha Dulani.