Chamari Athapaththu to lead unchanged squad for New Zealand T20Is

Sri Lanka have named an unchanged squad for the Women's T20I series against New Zealand that's scheduled to start on Saturday (July 8). Fresh from the historic ODI series win against New Zealand, the hosts will be now looking to challenge White Ferns in the shortest format.

Chamari Athapaththu had a terrfic ODI series with two centuries from three matches as her side pulled off an upset against former World Champions New Zealand. The twin wins were Sri Lanka's first against White Ferns in any format. The ODIs were part of the ICC Women's Championship (IWC) for the 2022-25 cycle and might prove crucial as Sri Lanka eyes qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2025 in India.

As a result of the performance in the ODI series, Athapaththu is currently the number one ranked ODI batter in the World in the ICC Rankings. The 33-year-old is the first Sri Lankan to achieve this and she will be looking to continue her form against the visitors.

Other than Athapaththu, Sri Lanka will have the experienced duo Oshadi Ranasinghe and Inoka Ranaweera leading the spin attack with Sugandika Kumari and Kavisha Dilhari providing the supporting act. Experienced left-arm pacer Udeshika Prabodhani also had a good ODI series and will lead the fast bowling department.

In the batting, young talents like Vishmi Gunaratne and Harishitha Madavi will be looking to further their recent improvements in the series. Gunaratne scored her maiden international fifty in the first ODI of the series and Madavi had a good T20I World Cup in South Africa where she played a crucial role in the win against Bangladesh.

The three-match T20I series will be played at the P Sara Oval in Colombo from July 8. The second and final T20Is are played on Jul 10 and 12  respectively.

Sri Lanka T20I squad: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Madavi, Nilakshi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Oshadi Ranasinghe, Kawya Karvindi, Sugandika Kumari, Inoka Ranaweera, Udeshika Prabodhani, Hansima Karunaratne, Inoshi Fernando, Imesha Dulani, Hasini Perera