Ahead of the match, Australian batter Phoebe Litchfield underlined the difficulties her team may encounter, particularly against the spinners in Sri Lanka’s lineup.
Defending champions Australia began their Women’s World Cup 2025 campaign with a convincing win over New Zealand. On Saturday, October 4, the Alyssa Healy-led team will meet Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
The 22-year-old believes Sri Lanka’s spinners differ from one another, and adapting to the variation will be difficult for the Australian batting unit, particularly on a slower surface. In India’s first match against Sri Lanka in the Women’s World Cup, Inoka Ranaweera and co. caused problems.
“Yeah, I think their opening bowlers pose a threat, but I think their spin attack is where their work gets done. They’ve got four spinners that are completely different to each other. And I think coming out here and seeing how it spins, that’ll probably be the biggest threat to us. And being able to adapt and play their spin really well because most of the middle overs is spin. And then, I guess, yeah, assessing that condition, if it’s spinning, if it’s not. And then hopefully, bowling really well on the flip side for us, because we’ve got pretty good side as well,” said Litchfield in the pre-match press conference.
The last time Australia and Sri Lanka played a Women’s ODI was back in 2019 in Brisbane.
Phoebe Litchfield believes that there is a certain beauty in the unknown.
She is confident that her team will be able to assess the conditions and be ready to counter whatever Sri Lanka has to offer.
“Yeah, I think there’s a beauty in the unknown at times. I think the last time we played them was in the T20 World Cup last year, and it’s a similar side. So, we’ve played them before, but I guess the beauty of a World Cup is you play every different side, and you have to prepare. You don’t really get time to learn. You’ve got to come out firing. And yeah, new conditions here as well. So, there’s a lot of challenges. But I think our group’s got some awesome heads on our shoulders and are able to assess conditions and adapt to whatever that’s thrown at us,” said Litchfield.
Sri Lanka didn’t have a great start to the tournament, losing to co-hosts India by 59 runs via DLS method in the curtain raiser in Guwahati. Chamari Athapaththu and Co. will look to give mighty Australia a run for their money on Saturday.
India
