Sharjah: The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 gets underway on Thursday 3 with the opening two matches in the tournament’s group stage.
Bangladesh open things up against World Cup debutants Scotland in Sharjah in Group B, before Pakistan play Sri Lanka on the same ground in Group A’s first fixture.
Bangladesh had hoped for this match to be on home soil, only for non-sporting events to prompt a change of plans, and yet this fixture nevertheless represents a huge opportunity for the team on the world stage.
Scotland are the only side ranked lower than Bangladesh in the group, and they will be extremely keen to get some points on the board and build confidence before targeting upsets against remaining Group B opponents England, West Indies, and South Africa.
For Scotland, this game represents history, being their first-ever appearance at an ICC Women’s T20 World Cup. And they will be eyeing a statement win of their own to celebrate the historic day in style.
Bangladesh Captain Nigar Sultana said, “Yeah, shifting the event from Bangladesh was pretty disappointing initially. But the thing is, we're very professional. Now we are here, and we are going to play this, and we are pretty fortunate that we will do something that is going to help all the fans and the families and friends to get cheered."
“I'm expecting a lot of spectators, because in Sharjah there are a lot of Bangladeshis there. And playing in this kind of event, I think more people will come watch us and support us,” she said.
Scotland Captain Kathryn Bryce said, “I think we just really want to compete in this competition. We've played some fantastic cricket in the qualifiers and leading up to it, so I think, we just want to go out there and do ourselves justice on that stage and put in some good performances against these teams.”
The opening Group A fixture at the tournament is a repeat of the Asia Cup semi-final back in July, where Sri Lanka triumphed in final-over thriller en-route to winning that competition outright.
And Sri Lanka will be looking for a similar positive result to give themselves a strong start in their bid to upset the odds and reach the T20 World Cup knockout stage.
This will be the only match where Chamari Athapaththu’s side will be the highest ranked during their group stage campaign, with fixtures against Australia, India and New Zealand to follow.
And form would suggest that they are strong favourites, with Pakistan suffering disappointing results in the warm-up matches, losing to Scotland and Bangladesh.
This is a new era for Pakistan women’s cricket, who are backing youngster Fatima Sana as captain as they look to freshen things up in the national set-up, and their 22-year-old skipper will be hoping for a morale-boosting win on the opening day.
Pakistan captain, Fatima Sana said, “I will try to enjoy myself, express myself, and back myself as well (as captain). Actually, our whole management is supporting me, and they told me that you just take a brave decision on the field, so just try to do this, be calm, and just do whatever you want.”
Sri Lanka captain, Chamari Athapaththu: “We are coming with underdog tag all the time. So, we don't have any pressure. I don't want to take too much pressure on my shoulders and my teammates' shoulders. But we keep it simple. I have a very young team, so we have a few seniors as well."
"I hope we can continue our best performance, because we've been playing really good cricket the last 16 months. This is a different format and different conditions, so we have to start again, fresh days. So, keep it simple, one ball one time, one game one time," she said.