CHENNAI: Chamari Athapaththu has played international cricket for over 15 years. She has lived through the ups and downs of Sri Lankan cricket. Whether it was beating then-defending champions England in the 2013 ODI World Cup or overpowering hosts and eventual runners-up, South Africa, in the latest T20 World Cup edition in 2023, she has been the beating heart of the team. These ups also came with lows where Sri Lanka women did not play any cricket for more than a year following the COVID-19 pandemic and missed out on a chance to play in the 2022 ODI World Cup.

Since the start of the new ICC ODI Championship post-2022 ODI World Cup, Sri Lanka have consistently played games against quality opposition at home and away venues. Not just that, Sri Lanka have also beaten better-ranked teams and Athapaththu saw it as one of the most important factors in the change of fortune for her team.

“We have played a lot of cricket in recent times and we have beaten a few teams as well. We beat New Zealand in Sri Lanka, England on their home soil, and South Africa in South Africa. So, my team is in a positive mindset. That will definitely help in the qualifiers,” Athapaththu had said before the qualifiers.

Since the new cycle, one of the things that has changed for Sri Lanka is the contribution from the likes of Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, and Kavisha Dilhari. Earlier, Athapaththu’s contribution was so dominant that the Sri Lankan batting would fall apart once the opposition figured out how to send the captain back.

Now these youngsters also started to dig deep to first support their captain and later survive on their own to take the team over the line.

The best example of the next generation standing up came in the T20I series against England, where Sri Lanka’s talented bowling attack and these batters stood up as Sri Lanka clinched the three-match T20 series after losing the first match. And that was the theme in the T20 World Cup Qualifiers as well. In their first match of the qualifiers, bowlers stood up collectively to defend the total against Thailand.