Chamari excited ahead of Australia game despite losing to India as she says it is ‘Good to start with best teams’.
‘Good to start with best teams’ – Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu ready for Australia after India.
Australia comes in second, followed by India. No, that was only a prediction for Sri Lanka’s first two World Cup matches, not an early prediction for the finals. Although things should only get easier from here, this forthcoming match will serve as the most accurate indicator yet of Sri Lanka’s upward trajectory over the last two years for a team that has been aching for regular, top-tier competition despite playing 31 ODIs between the 2022 World Cup and this one.
They may have given in to the pressure of the moment when they failed to win crucial points in the tournament opener against the hosts, India. And that pressure will only increase when you’re up against a formidable Australian team, who have so many ways to harm you that it’s difficult to identify a single vulnerability that they might exploit.
Both of these games have coincided with the beginning of the competition, which is ideal for Sri Lanka’s skipper Chamari Athapaththu, who hopes they would help her team achieve its goals.
“Yes, we’re playing against the two best teams in the first two games, but that’s really good for us,” Athapaththu said ahead of Saturday’s match against Australia in Colombo.
“Because then we have some games against teams – like South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan Bangladesh – that we have beaten during the last 12-15 months. So it’s good to start with best teams so that we can prepare well and learn from our mistakes and bounce back.”
Between the 2022 and 2025 World Cups, Sri Lanka participated in 31 WODIs and 61 WT20Is. Even so, games against top teams like Australia are still uncommon. Sri Lanka had not participated in an international match for four months before to this event; they warmed up by playing against young teams and domestic matches.
“Everyone knows the Australians are the best team and they have a very experienced side,” Athapaththu said. “In 2019 we played a series against them and I scored a century in Brisbane. After that we never played against Australia because of Covid and some other various reasons. So we missed playing against Australia.
“We know we haven’t played international games during the past few months, but we played some domestic cricket. There are things that I cannot control as a captain but I’ll control my bat and ball. Our preparation is good, because we played some games against national youth teams.”