ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup: Sri Lanka win toss; opt to bowl first against India

GUWAHATI: Sri Lanka women’s skipper Chamari Athapaththu on Tuesday won the toss and elected to bowl first against India women in the opening clash of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, which is being played at Guwahati’s Barsapara Cricket Stadium.

The Women in Blue will be aiming for their first-ever 50-over World Cup crown. Speaking to JioHotstar, Harmanpreet Kaur pointed out that this is her fifth ODI World Cup and having it at home is really big, but the team does not want to put that pressure on themselves and just enjoy their game.

The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 will be played from 30 September to 2 November across DY Patil Stadium (Navi Mumbai), ACA Stadium (Guwahati), Holkar Stadium (Indore), ACA-VDCA Stadium (Visakhapatnam) and R Premadasa Stadium (Colombo, Sri Lanka).

Sri Lanka have won the toss and elect to bowl first in the opening game of #CWC25

A look at our Playing XI for the game.

Live – https://t.co/m1N52FKTWT #INDvSL #CWC25 #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/77tE5U6T8e

— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) September 30, 2025

After winning the toss, Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu said, “We are bowling first. I am pretty confident about my bowling unit, so we are bowling first. It is a good batting track but there could be some dew later on. We are going with seven batters. The prep has been good. Next five games we are playing in Sri Lanka, I hope we can bring out our best in the competition”.

At the time of the toss, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur said, “We were looking to bowl as well. Looks (pitch) very good, hopefully we will put up a good score. Everyone is fit, we are going in with three spinners and two pacers. She (Smriti) has always been great for us; hopefully, she continues to do well. Today is a great opportunity to play good cricket again”.

Sri Lanka Women (Playing XI): Chamari Athapaththu (c), Hasini Perera, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Vishmi Gunaratne, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Achini Kulasuriya, Sugandika Kumari, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoka Ranaweera.

India Women (Playing XI): Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Amanjot Kaur, Sneh Rana, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani. (ANI)