NEW DELHI: Ahead of their women’s T20I series opener against Sri Lanka at Pembroke, Dublin, Ireland skipper Laura Delany said she wants her team to play in the style of cricket they are fully aware of.
Ireland missed out on featuring in this year’s Women’s T20 World Cup, as Sri Lanka and Scotland became the top two teams from the qualifying tournament held at Abu Dhabi earlier this year. Laura also pointed towards how Ireland have grown as a side and develop the potential of challenging big teams.
“I think as a squad we’ve improved hugely over the last 12 to 18 months, and we’ll be going out there on Sunday to put it in practice. I think as a group we’ve shown that we want to play aggressive and fearless nature (of cricket), and at times, you’ll cop the other end of the stick, and you’ll get out for not many runs.”
“And as a squad, we certainly faced that challenge against Scotland. We want to play the style that we know we can play. And when we play that style of cricket, we will beat the likes of Australia, which we did in the (Women’s T20) World Cup (2023) warm-ups. A couple of years ago, we beat South Africa at home and we’ve won a series against Pakistan,” Laura was quoted as saying by ICC to reporters.
Sri Lanka, who won the Women’s Asia Cup last month, don’t have the services of regular captain Chamari Athapaththu for the T20Is due to her commitments with Oval Invincibles in the Women’s Hundred.
The left-handed batter, though, will join the team for the ODIs. The three-match ODI series will be a part of the ICC Women’s Championship, where Sri Lanka are at the fifth position in the standings, while Ireland are at 10th place.
Laura said she is aware Sri Lanka aren’t much heavily dependent on Chamari now, and that the visitors’ will still be at their competitive best in T20Is. “It’s sticking to our strengths, and knowing that if we play that style of cricket, then hopefully we come up on the other side.”
“We know Chamari Athapaththu is the key player for them. But when you look at their batting lineup, and how they’ve played over the last four-five games, they’ve had a number of players contributing. We know there’s not just one or two players in their side, that we’ll have to look out for. We expect a very competitive game,” she concluded.