Kusal Perera Replaced Dimuth Karunaratne As ODI Captain of Sri Lanka
The 26-year-old Kusal Mendis has been handed the responsibility of being the vice-captain and a deputy to Perera.
Wicket-Keepr batsman Kusal Perera has replaced Dimuth Karunaratne as the captain of Sri Lanka in ODIs. With this, Perera become the 24th ODI captain of the Sri Lankan men’s cricket team.
Reports have emerged in the Sri Lankan media that Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) was not happy with the current ODI captain Dimuth Karunaratne and wanted to replace him with Perera.
“If the captain cannot find an automatic place in the playing XI on merit of his performance, we are not keen on retaining him as captain. So we have weighed all options and ultimately it comes to Kusal Perera,” an official close to SLC recently said, as quoted by The Sunday Times.
In another development, the 26-year-old Kusal Mendis has been handed the responsibility of being the vice-captain and a deputy to Perera. However, no change is expected in the T20I leadership group as Dasun Shanaka is set to remain, T20 skipper.
Meanwhile, Daily News Sri Lanka had earlier reported that the team management was looking to groom youngsters, keeping the 2023 Cricket World Cup in mind. SLC thus wants to boost Kusal Mendis’ confidence by naming him as Kusal Perera’s deputy.
“We are focusing on the 2023 World Cup and this is a good learning experience for the players. We want to groom a new captain and most probably Kusal Mendis is tipped to be the new vice-captain. We want to give him that confidence by naming him as the vice-captain,” a source in the SLC was quoted as saying by Daily News Sri Lanka.
The former Sri Lankan captain, Dimuth Karunaratne, has never scored an ODI hundred, while his strike rate in the 50-over format is below 75. Under Karunaratne’s leadership, the Islanders lost to West Indies 0-3 in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League.
