South African duo Tabraiz Shamsi and Anrich Nortje will play for the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in the 2024 CPL. The duo arrive as replacements for Wanidu Hasaranga and Nuwan Thushara who have been ruled out of the season due to injuries. The 2024 CPL season will be played from 30 August to 7 October 2024.
Both Sri Lankan bowlers missed the series against India due to injuries. Thusara got injured and fractured his left thumb during a fielding session before the start of the first T20I. Meanwhile, Hasaranga, who played the T20I series and also the first ODI, was ruled out of the last two games due to a hamstring injury.
Sri Lanka recently won the ODI series against India without its two best bowlers. At home and in changing playing conditions, Sri Lanka managed to outclass India.
They managed to draw the first match and won the second ODI by 32 runs and the final ODI by 110 runs. This was the first ODI series won by Sri Lanka against India in 27 years.
Captain Charith Asalanka was all smiles after winning the ODI series as captain as he praised his players and teammates for making this series win possible.
“I feel happy as captain right now. The team did everything right throughout the series. We all knew that they have a strong batting line-up and we wanted to back our strength, spin was our strength and we backed it. They are in good spirits right now and our coach (Sanath Jayasuriya) is very active. The boys really enjoyed the team atmosphere,” he said.
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Tabraiz Shamsi and Anrich Nortje prepare for CPL 2024
Shamsi has plenty of CPL experience, having played for the Patriots in 27 matches and picked up 33 wickets at an outstanding economy rate of just 7.07. The left-handed wrist-spinner has been ranked as the world’s number one T20 bowler in the past and will add plenty of wicket-taking potential to the Patriots’ line-up.
Anrich Nortje brings a lot of pace to the Patriots line-up and has an outstanding record in T20 cricket across the world. Nortje has 167 wickets at an average of 21.64 in the format in his 129 matches. Talking about the franchise, they finished bottom in the CPL 2023 with just one win from 10 games.
The 2024 CPL is the 12th edition of the domestic T20 tournament in the West Indies. Matches are scheduled to be played across six Caribbean countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. The Guyana Amazon Warriors are the defending champions. The Jamaica Tallawahs have been replaced by the Antigua & Barbuda Falcons.
“We are very excited to begin offering fans travel packages to watch CPL teams in six wonderful locations across the Caribbean. We are fortunate to have very passionate fans and by hiring a dedicated tourism manager who will work with hotels, airlines and tourism boards, we will make it easier than ever for fans to travel to watch CPL cricket.
“With the ICC T20 World Cup taking place in the Caribbean, this year will be a bumper year for sports tourism and CPL is looking forward to building on the momentum from that event,” said Pete Russell, CEO of Republic Bank CPL.
West Indies and USA recently hosted the T20 World Cup in June 2024
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