Women's World Cup 2022: Lizelle Lee likely to miss South Africa's opening fixture against Bangladesh

South Africa will be going into their opening fixture at the Women’s World Cup without the services of regular opener Lizelle Lee. Lee will be sitting out of her team’s first match against Bangladesh on March 5th in Dunedin owing to her currently serving a pre-tournament quarantine. The batter had a pre-decided delay in her arrival to the tournament due to the birth of her first child and is currently serving her quarantine at the New Zealand government’s Managed Quarantine and Isolation (MIQ) facility.

The batter arrived in New Zealand only last weekend which is notably two weeks after the rest of the South African squad had arrived and entered quarantine. The delay in her arrival came on the back of Lee reportedly requesting Cricket South Africa (CSA) for a delayed departure to the World Cup in New Zealand to spend time with her wife, Tanja Cronje, who gave birth to their son on February 22.

Lizelle Lee is crucial to South Africa’s chances at the World Cup

Post her initial request, an arrangement was made possible by the ICC, CSA, the South Africa Cricketers’ Association (SACA) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) following a month-long communication between them and Lee. Meanwhile, this major report was carried out by ESPNcricinfo. 

The 29-year-old is an important cog in the wheel as far as the South African squad is concerned. She is currently ranked sixth in the ICC rankings for batters. She previously held the numero uno position for a long period. Lee had also had to miss South Africa’s series against the West Indies in January owing to COVID. She has so far scored 3234 ODI runs for South Africa in 93 matches at an average of 38.50. The right-handed batter is known for her aggressive stroke play, having given her team many a blistering start with the bat in the past.

Meanwhile, South Africa, after playing their first game, will then move to Mount Maunganui to take on Pakistan on March 11. The 2017 semi-finalists had lost each of their two warm games against India and England in their build-up to the tournament.