1 week Ago
Indian captain won the toss and elected to bowl first in the women's tri-nations series opener against Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday morning after the rain had delayed the first game by a couple of hours. A lot of water beat the outfield before the groundsmen got into action quickly and the damp conditions at the venue dictated Harmanpreet's decision after the match was reduced to 39 overs per side. Harmanpreet was glad that the team got to play a tri-series with one eye on the ODI World Cup and mentioned that India would look to tick all the boxes despite having an inexperienced bowling attack.
The Women in Blue handed debuts to Kashvee Gautam, the right-arm pacer, who was one of the stars of the WPL, taking the joint-most wickets by an Indian bowler (11) and left-arm spinner N Shree Charani, who impressed on handful of outings for the Delhi Capitals in the tournament. Veteran all-rounder Sneh Rana returned to the line-up after her exploits for RCB in the latter half of WPL 2025 and so did . The batting line-up bore a familiar look with Harleen Deol being preferred over the southpaw Yastika Bhatia at No 3.
With Shafali Verma still not part of the squad, the batting line-up looks more or less settled but the bowling combination is most likely to undergo changes for India for the World Cup. On the other hand, Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu also wanted to bowl first, given the conditions. Sri Lanka also handed a couple of debuts to Malki Madara and Piumi Wathsala Badalge as they too look to fine-tune their preparations for the World Cup after a disappointing tour of New Zealand.
, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), , Richa Ghosh(w), , Kashvee Gautam, Arundhati Reddy, Sneh Rana, N Shree Charani Chamari Athapaththu(c), Hasini Perera, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani(w), Hansima Karunaratne, Piumi Badalge, Achini Kulasuriya, Inoka Ranaweera, Malki Madara.
