Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka has been ruled out of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 due to injury and Chamika Karunaratne will be seen leading the Lankan Lions for the remainder of the tournament.
Shanaka had sustained an injury to his right thigh during Sri Lanka’s defeat to Pakistan four days ago. On Saturday, ICC in a statement confirmed that Shanaka has been ruled out for the tournament.
“The injury needs three weeks to recover,” ICC said in a statement. Karunaratne will subsequently lead the Sri Lankan team starting from their fixture against Australia on Monday.
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Karunaratne has played 23 ODIs for Sri Lanka and he will have the task to guide the Lankan Lions to their first win in the World Cup after two defeats back to back.
After suffering a massive 102-run defeat to South Africa in their inaugural World Cup game at Delhi, the 1996 World Cup champs then lost to Pakistan by six wickets.
Luckily for them, their next meeting against Australia gives them a realistic chance of beating the five-time World Cup winners as they have lost two games in a row.
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The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 has approved Chamika Karunaratne as a replacement for Dasun Shanaka in the Sri Lankan squad.
Karunaratne is already in India and has been travelling with the team as their reserve player and could come into contention to play Sri Lanka’s next match against Australia in Lucknow on Monday.
The 27-year-old hasn’t played for Sri Lanka since he appeared in a T20I against New Zealand at the start of April but has made more than 60 appearances for his country in all three formats.
In-form batter Kusal Mendis is the vice-captain of Sri Lanka’s squad and is expected to step up and take the captaincy reins in the absence of Shanaka.
The replacement of a player requires the approval of the Event Technical Committee before the replacement player can be officially added to the squad.
With agency inputs
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