Unchanged India bat first against Sri Lanka in Dubai

Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss against Sri Lanka and decided to bat first in their third game at the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 in Dubai. 

India have had a rough start in the tournament, where they lost their first game by a huge margin of 58 runs against New Zealand after being outplayed in all three departments of the game. Although they did manage to win their second game against Pakistan by six wickets, their slow chase didn’t allow their net run rate (NRR) to improve a lot.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka are the only side in Group A to have lost both of their games. While Australia defeated them easily by six wickets and 34 deliveries remaining in their last game, Pakistan trumped them by 31 runs in their first game of the tournament. 

With qualifications on the line, both teams will play this encounter as a must-win game, considering that only one game will be left for both after this fixture. 

Playing XIs

India Women: Shafali Verma, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur ( c ) , Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Sajeevan Sajana, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Asha Sobhana, Renuka Thakur Singh

Sri Lanka Women: Vishmi Gunaratne, Chamari Athapaththu ( c ) , Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Ama Kanchana, Sugandika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera

What did the captains say

Harmanpreet Kaur: We gonna bat first, so far we haven't batted first so thought we will have a bat and put a decent total on the board. Feeling better (talking about her neck injury), if we play better cricket maybe I will feel more better. Asia Cup, we played good cricket on one odd day (talking about the final where India lost to Sri Lanka) they played good cricket. We are going with the same eleven we played in the same game.

Chamari Athapaththu: We stick with our plans and hope to play our best cricket today. We have to play fearless cricket and taking the smart option is very important. Powerplay is really important, and after that, we have to rotate strike. We have one change: Ama Kanchana is back in the side for Hasini Perera.

Pitch Report

Ian Bishop and WV Raman at the pitch side said that conditions at the Dubai International Stadium are cooler than in the earlier game, which is pleasant for the players as the day turns into night. The boundary is 57 meters to the short side, while the left is larger at 63 meters, with 73 meters straight down the ground. Raman added that the surface has been drier, favouring spinners, but during the evening, the ball tends to skid on better, making it more favourable for batters to play shots.