The Sri Lankan all-rounder Chamari Athapaththu has chosen to withdraw from the current event in order to focus on her international responsibilities, dealing UP Warriorz (UPW), a team in the Women’s Premier League (WPL), yet another setback in the days ahead. Beginning on March 4th, Chamari, the captain of Sri Lanka, will go to New Zealand for the white-ball series.
A portion of WPL 2025 will be missed by Chamari Athapaththu
The UP Warriorz team will have a lot to contend with in the days ahead as they will be without their all-rounder Chamari Athapaththu owing to Alyssa Healy’s injury withdrawal.
According to the announcement, Athapaththu will only be available until February 26th, which means she will only play four more games in the WPL 2025 this year. The UP Warriorz team will go to their home in Lucknow after playing the Mumbai Indians Women (MIW) in Bengaluru. But without Athapaththu, who is scheduled to go to Napier for the Sri Lanka Women’s trip of New Zealand, which will include three Twenty20 Internationals and three One-Day Internationals.
Athapaththu will be leaving after February 26th, since UP will have played their fifth game of the season by then, and she will miss all of the UP Warriorz’s home games. The Sri Lankan team will fly for New Zealand on February 22nd.
Furthermore, Athapaththu was not included in the starting lineup for Warriorz’s most recent match against the Gujarat Giants, which they lost.
Amelia Kerr will remain at the MI setup
However, Amelia Kerr, an all-round player for the Mumbai Indians women’s team, will be available for the duration of the league because she will not be playing in the bilateral series against Sri Lanka. Even if MI advances to the knockout stages, Kerr will be accessible during the competition.
Amelia previously skipped the whole Twenty20 International series against England last year in order to play the whole 2024 World Premier League. In order to concentrate on their bilateral obligations, Heather Knight and Lauren Bell, two English players for the RCB and UPW teams, withdrew from the competition entirely.
On the plus side, though, the ECB has promised that there won’t be any international games throughout the WPL season, so things have improved since last year.
The women’s Future Tour Programs (FTP), which were announced by ICC full members, also included debates. The WPL was allocated the January-February window in the 2026 edition, replacing its existing February-March window starting the following year.
Additionally, distinct periods have been set aside for the Women’s Big Bash League in November and the Hundred Women’s League in August.
