This is the year of the Commonwealth Games and all the participating countries and their teams are slowly gearing up for this mega event. The Indian women's T20I team finds themselves in similar kinds of circumstances. With women's T20I cricket being a huge part of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, the Indian team is looking to get some match practice and will start their preparations with a series that they are scheduled to play against Sri Lanka.
The Indian team will be eyeing a fresh start under Harmanpreet Kaur who is now the new all-format skipper. The women in blue will be eyeing the winner's medal in the multi-nation tournament and this is their chance to start their preparations on a winning note. Addressing her mindset about the preparations and the upcoming series, Harmanpreet said "As a team, there are quite a few areas we are currently working on to improve keeping in mind this particular series against Sri Lanka. While our core strength lies in our batting, we are giving extra efforts to improve our fielding skills. All our top batters and bowlers are fit for this series and we all expect to give our very best in this series," said Harmanpreet in the pre-match press conference".
The Indian team is assembling for the first time after their loss in the 2022 Women's World Cup and this time around they will be without the legendary Mithali Raj, who hung up her boots earlier this month after an illustrious 23-year-old career. Skipper Harmanpreet too will be eyeing a personal milestone. Kaur has a total of 2319 runs from 121 matches and she needs another 46 runs to go past Mithali in the shortest format.
The three-game T20 series will be followed by as many ODIs, scheduled to be played at Pallekele on July 1, 4, and 7.
Teams:
India: Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Simran Bahadur, Yastika Bhatia, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Richa Ghosh (WK), Sabbhineni Meghana, Meghna Singh, Poonam Yadav, Renuka Singh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Radha Yadav.
Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (C), Nilakshi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Vishmi Gunaratne, Ama Kanchana, Hansima Karunaratne, Achini Kulasuriya, Sugandika Kumari, Harshitha Madavi, Hasini Perera, Udeshika Prabodhani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Inoka Ranaweera, Sathya Sandeepani, Anushka Sanjeewani, Malsha Shehani, Tharika Sewwandi.
