‘We can win’: Athapaththu on CWC25 opener against India
Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu is confident about her side’s chances against India, ahead of their much-anticipated clash in Guwahati.
Sri Lanka are approaching the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 with optimism as they take on India in the tournament opener at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati on September 30.
Co-hosting this edition alongside India, Sri Lanka return to the World Cup after an eight-year absence. Their campaign begins against one of the tournament favourites but Athapaththu’s side will take confidence from their recent success.
Earlier this year, Sri Lanka hosted a tri-nation series with India and South Africa, securing victories over both teams before falling to India in the final.
Athapaththu believes the team is ready to build on those performances and is confident of producing a strong result in the opener.
Chamari Athapaththu reveals Sri Lanka's big World Cup ambitions | CWC25
Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu is eyeing a historic ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025 campaign ahead of their opening game against India in Guwahati.
“Actually, we’ve been playing really good cricket in the last 12 months against some big teams. My plan is to ensure we play our best cricket in front of everyone,” she said in the pre-match press conference in Guwahati.
“We don’t want to put too much pressure on our shoulders. We have to execute our plans at the right time and I know we can win this game (against India).”
Following their clash with India, Sri Lanka return home to the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo, where they will host defending champions Australia and then England. Five of their seven group-stage matches will be played at the venue, a factor Athapaththu sees as an advantage.
“Yeah, definitely (we have the home advantage). We’re playing five games at home in Sri Lanka at the Premadasa stadium on home soil in home conditions so we know the conditions better than anyone.
“But we have to play our best cricket and execute our plans at the right time, and we need to have a good start,” she conceded.
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Sri Lanka legend Tillakaratne Dilshan believes skipper Chamari Athapaththu will shine at the upcoming ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2025.
Sri Lanka’s warm-up fixtures offered mixed results with the first match against Pakistan washed out and the second ending in a narrow one-run defeat to Bangladesh. Still, the captain is encouraged by the form her side has shown.
“After the tri-series, we never played any international games but we played good domestic seasons. Our preparation is good, as we were training on our home soil, we played good cricket in the Tri-series, beat South Africa and beat India once.
“We played good cricket and mainly, our youngsters are doing well along with our seniors as well. So yeah, I hope we can play our best cricket in this World Cup,” Athapaththu said.
Sri Lanka will face-off the Harmanpreet Kaur-led India in the Cricket World Cup opening fixture to set the tournament ablaze on Tuesday, September 30.