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India women vs Sri Lanka women: The three-match T20 series between India and Sri Lanka will start from Thursday. All three matches will be played in Dambulla. Team India will make a new beginning under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur.
Indian women’s cricket team is going to make a new beginning from Thursday. Mithali Raj has retired and now all formats are commanded by Harmanpreet Kaur and the first opponent in front of her is Sri Lanka (India women vs Sri Lanka women). The Indian team will play the first T20 match against Sri Lanka in Dambulla and the aim will certainly be to start with a win. The T20 format of cricket has been included in the Commonwealth to be held in Birmingham, while the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is also eight months away and in such a situation, the Indian team would like to make a solid start to their campaign. India will play an ODI series for the first time after the Women’s World Cup 2022.
Harmanpreet will leave Mithali behind
This is the first competition of the Indian team after the retirement of veteran player Mithali Raj. Mithali said goodbye to cricket after an illustrious international career of 23 years. Personally, captain Harmanpreet will have her eyes set on leaving Mithali behind. Thirty-three-year-old Harmanpreet has scored 2319 runs in 121 matches and needs 46 runs to overtake Mithali in the shortest format of the game.
Team India demands victory like Pakistan!
Hosts Sri Lanka, however, will start the series on the back foot as the team suffered a 0-3 whitewash in the recent T20I series against Pakistan. However, India will have to be wary of experienced Sri Lankan players like Oshadi Ranasinghe and Chamari Atapattu. India played the last T20 match against New Zealand in February this year, in which the team lost by 18 runs.
Expectations from Mandhana, Shefali
Looking at the current form, India will have high hopes from Mandhana, Shefali Verma, Deepti Sharma and fast bowler Pooja Vastrakar. Considering the current form and world rankings, India will definitely start the series as strong contenders and Sri Lanka will have to improve their game a lot to beat the visiting team. Indian captain Harmanpreet said that he will focus more on fielding in the series against Sri Lanka. “As a team, in the series against Sri Lanka, we will look to improve in certain areas. Our strong side is batting, we will try to improve our fielding. Let us tell you that after the three-match T20 series against Sri Lanka, there will be an ODI series of equal number of matches, which will be held in Pallekal on July 1, 4 and 7.
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana, Simran Bahadur, Yastika Bhatia, Rajeshwari Gaikwad, Richa Ghosh, Sabhinene Meghna, Meghna Singh, Poonam Yadav, Renuka Singh, Jemima Rodrigues, Shefali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar and Radha Yadav.
Sri Lanka: Chamari Atapattu (Captain), Nilakshi D’Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Vishmi Gunaratne, Ama Kanchana, Hansima Karunaratne, Achini Kulsuriya, Sugandhika Kumari, Harshita Madvi, Hasini Perera, Udeshika Prabodhani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Satya Sandipani, Anoushka Sanjeevani, Thashaarikashe .
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