Lasith Malinga, the mainstay of Sri Lankan pace bowling attack for quite a few years now has been dropped from the One-day International squad that will play a five-match series against Pakistan in UAE.
Malinga, who has not been in good form in recent times and also had a poor show against the Indian side where the Sri Lankan team got whitewashed, lost his place from the current squad. Sri Lanka Cricket said that keeping his current form in mind and with a context to build a decent squad for the 2019 World Cup, the veteran pacer was not considered.
All-rounder Angelo Matthews, who missed the ongoing test series against Pakistan due to a calf injury was also not considered for the squad as he was not able to recover in due time. A spokesperson for Sri Lankan Cricket Board while talking about Anjelo said, “Angelo is struggling. We thought he will be okay for the ODIs, but on Monday while running he felt the pain again and has been ruled out. It”s a massive loss for us.”
Opening batsman Danushka Gunathilaka was a surprise exclusion from the squad after averaging 42.41 in ODI’s this year. He was one of Sri Lanka’s in-form batsman. However, Dinesh Chandimal who leads the side in the test format found his place in the squad so did middle-order batsman Chamara Kapugedera.
Leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay made a comeback to the squad in place of left-arm wrist-spinner Lakshman Sandakan. Akila Dananjaya retains his pot in the 15-member squad while part-time slow bowling all-rounders Seekkuge Prasanna and Milinda Siriwardana were also included.
Right-arm fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera, who had been dropped from the test squad retained his place in the ODI team while Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, and Vishwa Fernando were the other seam bowlers.
The first match of the five-match series is scheduled to commence from October 13 in Dubai.
Sri Lanka Squad: Upul Tharanga (Captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana, Chamara Kapugedera, Thisara Perera, Seekkuge Prasanna, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera, Vishwa Fernando, Akila Dananjaya and Jeffrey Vandersay.
