Sri Lanka batter Harshitha Samarawickrama replaces the injured Meg Lanning at Trinbago Knight Riders for the 2024 Women’s Caribbean Premier League (WCPL). Samarawickrama, a talented left-hand top-order batter, joins a strong overseas lineup that includes Shikha Pandey, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Jess Jonassen. Consequently, she becomes only the second Sri Lankan woman, after Chamari Athapaththu, to play in an overseas league.
Samarawickrama’s selection comes as her career is on the rise. She was named Player of the Final in Sri Lanka’s historic Women’s Asia Cup 2024 victory, where she scored an unbeaten 69 off 51 balls. She continued her excellent form with consecutive fifties in the T20I series against Ireland and made history by becoming the third Sri Lankan woman to score an ODI century with her 105 against the same opponents. In T20Is, she has accumulated 1,463 runs in 65 matches at a strike rate of 99.72, highlighting her consistency and ability to perform under pressure.
Meanwhile, Lanning recently played for London Spirit in The Hundred, where her team won the title. However, she had a modest tournament, scoring 170 runs in ten innings at a strike rate of 125.
The Trinbago Knight Riders will kick off their WCPL 2024 campaign against the Barbados Royals in Tarouba on Thursday, with Samarawickrama expected to play a key role.
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