Ahead of the 3rd One day international, Sri Lanka has suffered a major blow as their newly appointed captain Upul Tharanga has been suspended for 2 matches. The reason for the suspension was slow over rate against India at Palleke on Thursday. Despite great bowling by the young spinner, Dananjaya who took 6 wickets for 54 runs broke the backbone of the Indian team to reduce the visitors to 131 for 7 before Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar partnership secured a famous win.
Sri Lanka lost the 2nd ODI by 3 wickets via D/L method. Upul Tharanga form in the ODI series has been poor with scores of 13 and 9. The Sri Lankan cricket team took more than 3 and half hours to complete their overs. Andy Pycroft, match referee gave the penalty to the captain as the teams have to finish in three and half hours.
The Indian cricket started well with Rohit Sharma and Dhawan adding 109 runs before they lost wickets at regular intervals to be in a tough position. Tharanga was banned for 2 matches during the recently concluded Champions Trophy 2017 after a slow over rate against South Africa.
Sri Lanka is trailing 0-2 in the series. They have called Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimane replacing Gunathilkha. The hosts need to win 2 matches to qualify directly for World Cup 2019 to be held in England. Chandimal was not a part of the original squad and now with the team lacking experience, the test captain has been called to give batting line up hope of putting up a better batting performance.
The team will be led by Chamara Kapugedra instead of Chandimal. “The main reason for appointing Kapu as the captain is because he was actually Upul”s deputy in the first two matches, and we wanted to stick with him, rather than bringing someone from outside,” Gurusinha said. Sri Lanka is struggling at the moment and we need a player who can do a job for the team.
Thirimane might a chance instead of Gunathilkha who injured his shoulder while fielding. The left handed batsman played his last ODI in January 2016. It will be a big chance for Thirimane to play well in the opening position and contribute for the hosts.
The third ODI will be played at Palleke on Sunday and the fourth ODI on 31st August at Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
