Image Credit- ACC
In the Women’s Caribbean Premier League 2024, Harshitha Samarawickrama of Sri Lanka has taken Meg Lanning’s position at the bat for the Trinbago Knight Riders due to an injury.
The other overseas players for the Knight Riders are Jess Jonassen, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shikha Pandey, and left-hand top-order hitter Samarawickrama. She is only the second woman from Sri Lanka, after Chamari Athapaththu, to play in an international league.
Samarawickrama was chosen at a point when her stock was increasing. With an undefeated 69 off 51 balls in Sri Lanka’s inaugural title victory in the Women’s Asia Cup 2024, she was named Player of the Final. She then made back-to-back fifties in the T20I series against Ireland, and with her 105 against the same opponents, she became the third woman to score an ODI century for Sri Lanka. She has scored 1463 runs at a strike percentage of 99.72 in 65 T20Is overall.
Earlier this month, Lanning competed in the Hundred, where her team, London Spirit, took first place. She did, however, have a modest run of runs scored: 170 runs at a strike rate of 125 in ten innings.
Knight Riders start their WCPL 2024 campaign against Barbados Royals in Tarouba on Thursday.