In the Women’s Caribbean Premier League 2024, Harshitha Samarawickrama of Sri Lanka has taken the injured Meg Lanning’s position in the squad for the Trinbago Knight Riders

The other overseas players for the Knight Riders are Jess Jonassen, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Shikha Pandey, along with the left-hand top-order batter Samarawickrama. She is only the second woman from Sri Lanka, after Chamari Athapaththu, to play in an international league.

Samarawickrama was chosen at a point when her stocks are increasing. With an undefeated 69 off 51 balls in Sri Lanka’s inaugural title victory in the Women’s Asia Cup 2024, she was named Player of the Final against the Asian Giants India. She then made back-to-back fifties in the T20I series against Ireland, and with her 105 against the same opponents, she became the third woman to score an ODI century for Sri Lanka. She has scored 1463 runs at a strike rate of 99.72 in 65 T20Is overall.

Lanning would be a big shoe to fill for the women from Sri Lanka. Lanning has been a stalwart of World cricket and she has continued to impress one and all even at the later stages of her career.

Earlier this month, Lanning competed in the Hundred, where her team, London Spirit, took the championship. She did, however, have a modest run of runs scored: 170 runs at a strike rate of 125 in ten innings.

Knight Riders start their WCPL 2024 campaign against Barbados Royals in Tarouba on Thursday.