Warriorz appointed Athapaththu to replace Bell

WPL's Loren Bell and Heather Knight have pulled out for next year.

Warriorz have announced the withdrawal of Lauren Bell from the upcoming Women's Premier League (WPL) season and have brought in Chamari Athapaththu to replace her. England’s captain Heather Knight has also pulled out of the upcoming WPL season. 

It’s a choice between club and country for England's women. Bell recently told the Warriorz squad she wanted to focus on preparing for the New Zealand series, which starts in Dunedin on 19 March, just two days after the final in Delhi. The rest of the Warriorz squad, including head coach Jon Lewis (who is also England Women's head coach), Sophie Ecclestone and Danni Wyatt, are yet to be confirmed. It is not yet known if they will complete their WPL commitments before heading to New Zealand.During the WPL 2024 auction, Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu went unsold. Given the kind of year she had in the 20-over format in 2023, this came as a shock to many. She scored 470 runs at 31.33 in 16 T20Is last year, with a strike rate of almost 131. She also took eight wickets at 26.62. Athapaththu also finished as Sri Lanka's leading scorer and joint top wicket-taker in their historic first series win over England.

In domestic T20s too, the 33-year-old Athapaththu has had a sensational time. Overlooked in the overseas draft, Athapaththu tore up the WBBL after being called up as an overseas replacement. In 14 innings for Sydney Thunder, she scored 552 runs at 42.46, including five half-centuries, and finished as the competition's second-highest run-scorer, just five runs behind top-scorer Beth Mooney. In addition, Athapaththu took nine wickets at an economy rate of 6.83 to be named Player of the Tournament.

Athapaththu recently took part in the Women's Super Smash in New Zealand, playing for Northern Districts and scoring 221 runs in nine matches with an average of 128.48, including a half-century. She also contributed to the team with nine wickets and a best bowling figures of 4 for 19.

Athapaththu has played 122 T20Is, scoring 2651 runs at 22.65 with eight fifties and the only century by a Sri Lankan woman. With an economy rate of 6.70, she has also taken 40 wickets in the format.

Athapaththu could form a deadly opening pair with Healy at Warriorz. The 2024 WPL will take place in Bengaluru and Delhi from 23 February to 17 March. Warriorz kick off the campaign on 24 February against Royal Challengers Bangalore.