Vishmi Gunaratne

In April 2022, before she had turned 17, Vishmi Gunaratne made her name in Sri Lanka's cricketing circles as a top-order stroke-player. In just her third List A game, playing for Chilaw Marians Cricket Club in the Women's Division One Tournament, she struck an unbeaten 138. Later that month, she again made headlines for scoring a 128-ball 417 for Rathnaweli Balika Vidyalaya in the Under-19 women's tournament organised by the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association.

Much before all that, though, Gunaratne had received her maiden call-up to Sri Lanka's ODI side, in October 2021, for the ODI World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe, which was called off after it had started because of the latest wave of Covid-19. She made her international debut in a T20I at the Commonwealth Games qualifier in Malaysia in January 2022. After missing Sri Lanka's tour of Pakistan in May that year to appear for her GCE O-Level exam, Gunaratne returned for the home series against India, where she was involved in an 87-run opening stand, the best for Sri Lanka in T20Is, with Chamari Athapaththu.

Gunaratne also captained Sri Lanka at the inaugural Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa at the start of 2023. She finished that tournament as Sri Lanka's leading scorer with 134 runs at an average of 44.66 and a strike rate of 92.41. After a successful tour of South Africa in early 2024, where Sri Lanka won the ODI series 2-1 and tied the T20Is 1-1, Athapaththu lauded Gunaratne's ability to handle pressure. A quality that has made the youngster a regular in the Sri Lanka team.