IND-W vs SL-W 2025/26, IND-W vs SL-W 4th T20I Match Preview

Ravi Singh

4 hours ago

Big Picture: Sri Lanka searching for new stars

All the three games in this series have followed a similar patten so far. India have won three tosses – yup, you read that right – elected to bowl, and then used dew to their advantage to chase down modest totals unchallenged.

With a T20 World Cup around the corner, and an unassailable 3-0 lead in their pocket, it would be prudent for India to start challenging themselves and look to set totals if their luck with the toss continues.

They’d also want to perhaps find a way to expand their squad depth a bit more – the lower-order firepower seemed lacking in the 2024 tournament. G Kamalini brings with her the same big-hitting promise Richa Ghosh did as a teenager in 2020. Maybe it’s time to unleash her?

Sri Lanka continue to mix and match to find their own versions of Mandhana and Harmanpreet and, while there has been promise here and there, consistent performers have been hard to find.

Form Guide

India WWWLW (Last five completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LLLLW

In the spotlight: Vaishnavi and Samarawickrama

After Radha Yadav, Tanuja Kanwar, Saika Ishaque and N Shree Charani, 20-year-old Vaishnavi Sharma is the latest to break into India’s left-arm spin club. But, she’s the only one among the five to do so without the WPL giving her a leg up. Vaishnavi finished as the leading wicket-taker in the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy with 21 wickets in 11 matches at an economy rate of 6.47. She backed it up in the inter-zonal tournament and again in these three games against Sri Lanka. Her composure has been striking. So too the courage to keep tossing the ball up.

When Sri Lanka stunned India to win last year’s Asia Cup final, top-scorer Harshitha Samarawickrama seemed a player of immense promise. But in the 17 months since, such moments have been rare. Coach Rumesh Ratnayake continues to back her and believes a turnaround is imminent, and she’ll be keen to repay the faith. Since the start of the T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, she is yet to score a half-century in nine innings.

Team news: Will India give Kamalini a go?

With a T20 World Cup just six months away, this is India’s chance to expand their talent pool and to that end, they may want to bring 17-year-old wicketkeeper Kamalini into the mix and see what she can do.

India (probable): 1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Jemimah Rodrigues, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Richa Ghosh/ G Kamalini (wk), 6 Deepti Sharma, 7 Amanjot Kaur, 8 Renuka Singh/Arundhati Reddy, 9 Kranti Gaud, 10 Vaishnavi Sharma, 11 Shree Charani

As a response to their batting needing more support, Sri Lanka made three changes in the last game and ended up posting just 112. There may be more changes on Sunday.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Chamari Athapaththu (capt), 2 Hasini Perera, 3 Harshitha Samarawickrama, 4 Imesha Dulani, 5 Nilakshika Silva, 6 Kaushini Nuthyangana (wk), 7 Kavisha Dilhari, 8 Malki Madara, 9 Inoka Ranaweera, 10 Malsha Snehani, 11 Nimasha Meepage

Pitch and conditions

Trivandrum has traditionally been a black-soil surface that offers true bounce. With dew unlikely to be as big a factor as it was in Vizag, conditions aren’t as heavily skewed in favour of team fielding first.

Stats and trivia: Mandhana eyeing 10,000 international runs

Smriti Mandhana is 27 runs away from aggregating 10,000 international runs.
Deepti Sharma needs one more wicket to be the leading wicket-taker in women’s T20Is.
Deepti has dismissed Chamari Athapaththu six times in T20Is, equalling her highest tally against any batter. She’s dismissed England’s Danni Wyatt-Hodge six times as well.
Athapaththu is set to play in her 150th T20I. She’ll become the eighth woman player to get to this landmark.
Among all batters who’ve faced at least 1000 balls from Full Member teams, Hasini Perera’s average of 12.5 is the lowest in women’s T20Is

Quotes

“I was excited when I found that we were going to play in Kerala. From the Under-19 days, I have almost always taken four wickets here. I get a positive feeling that I have already done well here, and that gives me the confidence that I could do well again.”
India fast bowler Renuka Singh after her Player-of-the-match winning performance in the third T20I

“I feel we need to improve our batting a little bit, especially in our middle order and how we finish the game as a batting unit. Our power game is not good enough for this format.”
Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu is point-blank about her side’s shortcomings

Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo

Source link