Sri Lanka chose to bat vs India
Under sunny Pallekele conditions, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu chose to bat first against Harmanpreet Kaur’s India in the opening fixture of a three-match ODI series. Athapaththu said that despite a few changes from the T20I series, the victory from the last T20I game will give Sri Lanka confidence to replicate the same in the ODI contest.
India captain Harmanpreet said that India were confident of a winning start to the ODI series, mentioning that the 50-over format is the stronger of India’s two white-ball formats.
For Sri Lanka, Rashmi de Silva, the legspinner, made her international debut.
The pitch for the first game is dry, and expected to assist spinners from both sides. For seamers to enjoy success, they will have to nail their variations.
Sri Lanka: Hasini Perera, Chamari Athapaththu (capt), Hansima Karunaratne, Kavisha Dilhari, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Oshadi Ranasinghe, Rashmi de Silva, Inoka Ranaweera, Achini Kulasuriya.
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia (wk), Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Harleen Deol, Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar, Renuka Singh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Meghna Singh.