Sri Lanka faces uphill battle against champions Australia

Since 2022, Sri Lanka and Australia have only faced each other twice, both in T20 World Cups and resulting in heavy defeats. The pandemic and no fixtures in the Championship cycle mean the co-host of the Women’s ODI World Cup has no recent match references to draw from as it takes on the defending champion in a league fixture on home soil here on Saturday.

With a 100 per cent win record in the 11 ODIs these two sides have played in total, a rampaging Australia, fresh from an 89-run campaign-opening win against New Zealand, enters as favourite. Sri Lanka, still licking the wounds from a 59-run loss to India in a rain-hampered game, has much work to do as it bids for its first points of the tournament.

An in-form Aussie batting line-up might not bother changing the combination from its opener, but the kind of help Pakistan and Bangladesh pacers drew from the surface at the R. Premadasa Stadium will have the girls in green and gold rubbing their hands in glee. If Australia gets to bat first, this surface might be truly tested for how many runs it can actually produce as well.

Sri Lanka has spent a considerable amount of time ahead of the World Cup training at this venue – where it will play five of its seven league games. Familiarity will only take the side that far. The story of the batting order of late, regardless of the World Cup edition or format, has been headlined by Chamari Athapaththu on whom an unhealthy dependence still exists. While the experienced players in the bowling arsenal like Inoka Ranaweera and Udeshika Prabodhani have walked the talk, the youngsters – particularly the likes of Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshita Samarawickrama – have some naysayers to shut down and will hope to do that against gold standard opposition like the Aussies.