It is the second season of the WPL and Chamari Athapaththu was a player that all the fans of women’s cricket wanted to see play in the WPL. This is the biggest Women’s T20 league in the world and the best players in the world should all play in it. Chamari Athapaththu has been performing consistently throughout the years and finally the UP Warriorz have named her as the replacement for Lauren Bell who will miss the second season of the WPL.
Let’s talk about Chamari Athapaththu and why she will add so much to the WPL
Chamari Athapaththu finally gets her chance at WPL
Just recently in the ICC Awards for 2023, she won the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the year and she was also the captain of the Women’s T20I and ODI Teams of the year for ICC. Chamari Athapaththu is the first Sri Lankan women player to ever win an ICC Award. She has also become the first women’s player to play in the WPL. Lauren Bell announced that she will not play in the WPL because she had to prepare for the England vs New Zealand series. She has played 118 T20Is for Sri Lanka and in those Matches ste has made 2554 runs at an average of 22.60. She has also made a hundred in T20IS.
The UP Warriorz is a very good team and they finished 3rd in the season last year. They have their captain Alyssa Healy along with Tahlia McGrath, Grace Harris, Sophie Ecclestone, Deepti Sharma and now Chamari Athapaththu can be the perfect opening partner for Alyssa Healy and together these 2 will wreck havoc in the Chinnaswamy Stadium and the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Chamari Athapaththu will get to play with the best players in the world and also play against the best In the world.
The WPL is about giving opportunities to the players who do not have the big stages to perform. Chamari Athapaththu has had the biggest of stages but playing in front of 40,000 fans at Bangalore and Delhi will be something that can be slightly intimidating for her. She has to represent Sri Lankan cricket as well so that more women Cricketers from Sri Lanka play in the WPL in the coming years. The WPL season 2 will start from 23rd of February from Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. She will get great batting conditions in both venues and the boundaries are short.
