The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Friday announced a 17-member squad of the upcoming 2-match Test series against India. Dimuth Karunaratne will lead the team while Dhananjaya de Silva has been named his deputy. The first game of the 2-match series will commence on March 4 in Mohali. Both teams will then move to Bengaluru where the second and the final match of the tour will be played.
Meanwhile, the likes of wicketkeeper-batter Niroshan Dickwella and De Silva have been drafted into the T20I squad in place of injured Kusal Mendis and Mahesh Theekshana. Both of them had suffered hamstring injuries during the 5th and the final T20I against Australia.
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While Theekshana will head back home and undergo a rehabilitation program, Mendis has been included in the Test squad and will be available for selection if he regains fitness. Ace all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga will also return home from Australia. The latter was ruled out of the India series after positive for Covid-19 for the second time.
Off-spinner Ramesh Mendis hasn’t been included due to an injury. The Tests against India will also mark the last international assignment of senior pacer Suranga Lakmal, who had announced his retirement from playing for Sri Lanka across all formats after the conclusion of the series.
The members of the Test squad who aren’t participating in the T20Is left for India on Friday morning. “Playing India in India is not easy. We know in the past, we played in India and it was not going to be easy. But we have been playing really well in the past few years and have prepared really well. I think we can give it a good shot in India as well,” said Dimuth Karunaratne ahead of departure.
Squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (captain), Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dhananjaya de Silva (vice-captain), Kusal Mendis (subject to fitness), Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Charith Asalanka, Niroshan Dickwella, Chamika Karunaratne, Lahiru Kumara, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera, Vishwa Fernando, Jeffrey Vandersay, Praveen Jayawickrema and Lasith Embuldeniya.
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