By Srian Obeyesekere

Sri Lanka Women’s cricketer Vishmi Gunaratne, who missed the last tour of Bangladesh due to an injury, who came back with a bang representing the Sri Lanka A Women following her injury recovery scoring almost a run a ball 57 in the triumphant second T20 against New Zealand A Women. has proved to be a telling discovery at just 20 years of age.

Her performance was a rejuvenation of the good work of the top order batter to securing her place in the Sri Lanka squad for the upcoming ICC T20 Women’s World Cup as a crop of durable young faces were right up there in contention for the dream call up.

Since foraying into domestic cricket at just 17 years as a forceful batter, she had the distinction of captaining the Sri Lanka U19 Women’s team at the 2023 U19 Women’s World Cup, Gunaratne made her T20 international debut at the Commonwealth Games qualifier in Malaysia in 2022. Having skipped the tour of Pakistan early that year due to her GCE O.L. Examination, she returned to the Sri Lanka team figuring in an 87 run stand with skipper Chamari Athapaththu, the best yet for the first wicket. She remains a key to Sri Lanka’s fortunes.