Samarawickrama steps in for injured Lanning for Trinbago Knight Riders

Harshitha Samarawickrama is set to bring her powerful batting skills to Trinbago Knight Riders in the Women's Caribbean Premier League 2024, as she takes the place of the injured Meg Lanning.

Samarawickrama, a left-hand top-order batter, will join Shikha Pandey, Jemimah Rodrigues and Jess Jonassen as the other overseas players for Knight Riders. She is only the second Sri Lankan woman to be part of an overseas league after Chamari Athapaththu.

The move to pick Samarawickrama comes at a time when her stocks are rising. She was the Player of the Final with an unbeaten 69 off 51 balls in Sri Lanka's maiden title win at Women's Asia Cup 2024. She followed that with back-to-back fifties in the T20I series against Ireland before becoming the third woman to hit an ODI century for Sri Lanka with her 105 against the same opponents. Overall, she has 1463 runs in 65 T20Is at a strike rate of 99.72.

Lanning was in action at the Hundred earlier this month, where her side, London Spirit, won the title. She herself had a lean run of scores, though: 170 runs in ten innings at a strike rate of 125.

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