Women’s Asia Cup T20 Tournament:
Home advantage will favour Sri Lanka, says Chamari
Eight women’s team captains of Asia Cup T-20 tourney with Tournament Director Ravin Wickramaratne (VP SLC) at the press briefing held at Dambulla Stadium yesterday. Others from left: Indu Barma-Nepal skipper, Esha Rohit Oza-UAE skipper, Niger Sultan-Bangladesh skipper, Chamari Athapaththu-Sri Lanka skipper, Hermanpreet Kaur-India skipper, Nida Rashid-Pakistan skipper, Thipatcha Putthawong-Thailand skipper and Malaysia skipper Winifred Dusaisingham (pix courtesy SLC)Eight women’s team captains of Asia Cup T-20 tourney with Tournament Director Ravin Wickramaratne (VP SLC) at the press briefing held at Dambulla Stadium yesterday. Others from left: Indu Barma-Nepal skipper, Esha Rohit Oza-UAE skipper, Niger Sultan-Bangladesh skipper, Chamari Athapaththu-Sri Lanka skipper, Hermanpreet Kaur-India skipper, Nida Rashid-Pakistan skipper, Thipatcha Putthawong-Thailand skipper and Malaysia skipper Winifred Dusaisingham (pix courtesy SLC)
We are very confident to play Asia Cup T-20 Tournament which always give big boost for the forthcoming Women’s World Cup cricket tournament said Sri Lanka women’s cricket captain Chamari Athapaththu at the press briefing prior to ninth edition of the Asia Cup women’s cricket tournament which will commence today at Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium. Two matches scheduled to play on opening day. Nepal women’s and UAE women’s game will start at 2pm and defending champions India will meet Pakistan from 7 pm.
Eight teams including defending champions India, hosts Sri Lanka alongside Pakistan and Bangladesh qualified automatically for the tournament by being ICC full members. These four will be joined by Malaysia, UAE, Nepal and Thailand who all qualified as the top four teams in the 2024 ACC Women’s Premier Cup.
“We are in good shape before this Asia Cup while our team preparation is very high. But we hope to play match by match to go forward.”said Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu.
Tournament Director of Asia Women’s Cup Ravin Wickramaratne said this event will pave a good platform for the women to showcase their talent while Asian Cricket Council gave good opportunity to Sri Lanka Cricket to host this event and we are very keen to host this. “These days LPL and ICC Annual conference are also being held in Sri Lanka. We are ready to conduct India men’s series also and these are not big challenges for us,” said Tournament Director.
Out of the Asia Cup eight editions, India have won seven. Till the 2018 Women’s Asia Cup, India were undefeated. The streak was broken in a group stage match in 2018. Later in the final of the same edition, Bangladesh defeated India to become the only team apart from the women in blue to win an Asia Cup title.
India skipper Hermanpreet Kaur said this time the team is well prepared to face this event and wanted to get good exposure before T -20 World Cup.
Going back to the Asia Cup history India dominated the tournament with winning seven times in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2022 while Bangladesh won the title in 2018. Sri Lanka had to satisfy with runners up in five times 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2022.
Sri Lanka also head into the tournament as a strong contender. They have won nine of their 12 matches this year and no longer just depend on captain Chamari Athapaththu to deliver. There have been handy contributions from Vishmi Gunaratne, the second-highest run-getter for Sri Lanka this year with 324 runs in 12 innings and Harshitha Samarawickrama in top order with more potential. The team has also benefited from Kavisha Dilhari’s all-round ability. She has 145 runs at a strike rate of 136.79 and 12 wickets from 11 matches with her off breaks. The youngsters are really performing well recently and we are looking forward to do well and I am sure home ground conditions will favour us,” said skipper Chamari Athapaththu.
India are coming into the tournament after a drawn 1-1 T-20I series against South Africa at home and a 5-0 win against Bangladesh in Sylhet. The two series have given the defending champions several positives and their vice-captain Smriti Mandana is in excellent form.
Asia Cup women’s T – 20 groupings
Group A – India, Pakistan, UAE, Nepal
Group B – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia