Sri Lanka name squad for white-ball tour of South Africa

Colombo [Sri Lanka], March 22 (ANI): Sri Lanka Cricket on Friday named a 17-player squad for their upcoming white-ball series tour of South Africa. Chamari Athapaththu, who is ICC Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year will lead the squad in the series which will kick off with the T20I leg on March 27 in Benoni. The two sides will first contest a three-match T20I series, followed by as many ODIs, that will also form a part of the ICC Women's Championship 2022-25 cycle. South Africa are currently No.2 on IWC Standings with 20 points from 15 games, behind table-toppers Australia, while Sri Lanka are at No.8 with 11 points from 15 games.

This will be the first bilateral series visit to South Africa by Sri Lankan women since 2019. It is also the first bilateral meeting between the two parties since 2019.

Sri Lanka's last tour to South Africa included an identical amount of T20Is and ODIs, both of which the hosts won cleanly.

With the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 in Bangladesh quickly approaching, this white-ball match would be critical for both teams' preparations.

The two teams last met in a white-ball encounter in last year's T20 World Cup in Cape Town, with Sri Lanka winning by three runs.

Athapaththu sparkled with a 50-ball 68 to win the Player of the Match title, while Inoka Ranaweera excelled with the ball, returning 3/18.

Sri Lanka squad for the white-ball tour of South Africa: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Vishmi Gunaratne, Nilakshi de Silva, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Hasini Perera, Anushka Sanjeewani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera, Achini Kulasuriya, Hansima Karunaratne, Imesha Dulani, Kawya Kavindi, Inoshi Fernando, Sugandika Kumari and Prasadini Weerakkody. (ANI)