Sri Lanka dashing left-handed opener Danushka Gunathilika is not available for the remaining two matches of the ODI series against Pakistan even though his ban has been reduced to three matches, Cricket Age has learnt.
After the ExCo meeting on Monday, SLC had reduced his ban to three matches, upon his appeal. After that there were reports that he would fly to UAE to join the team for the remainder of the series.
“He is not going to UAE for ODI series. Maybe he can join the team for t20s” a source revealed.
An In-form Gunathilika is the need of hour for struggling Sri Lanka. Poor batting has the main cause of Sri Lanka continues flop show in ODI cricket, as team hasn’t crossed 250 mark in last eight matches. Yesterday defeat was Sri Lanka’s tenth consecutive in the ODI cricket, worst ever in their history.
Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimane and Milinda Siriwardena all are hopelessly out of form, causing more problems for the team management.
Sri Lanka batting is so much disappointing that selectors have added Young batting prodigy Sadeera Samarwikrama in the middle of the series. He has joined the Sri Lanka team in UAE and is most likely to make his ODI debut in the fourth match of the series to be played tomorrow.
Samarwikrama was not part of the original squad, but had been included after the Sri Lanka’s losses in the first two matches of the series.
“He has already joined the squad and is all set to make his ODI debut tomorrow, as Sri Lanka batting in disarray right now” a team official told Cricket Age from UAE.
The 22-year old right hander has been regarded as the next big thing in Sri Lanka cricket for a while now. After taking domestic cricket by storm, he made his test debut in the second test against Pakistan recently, which was Sri Lanka’s first ever day-night test.
