COLOMBO: Dasun Shanaka’s reign as Sri Lanka’s white-ball captain has come to an stop as Sri Lanka’s new selection committee appointed Kusal Mendis and Wanindu Hasaranga to steer the ODI and T20I facets, respectively. With Dimuth Karunaratne currently leading the check side, that is the primary time Sri Lanka have 3 distinct captains inside the three codecs.
Shanaka first captained Sri Lanka in 2019, on the crew’s first excursion to Pakistan for the reason that 2009 Lahore attack, but it changed into not till 2021 that he became their everyday captain. underneath him, Sri Lanka gained 23 out of 41 ODIs and 22 out of forty eight T20Is. The spotlight of his tenure became the 2022 T20 Asia Cup victory inside the UAE where Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in the very last.
Also notable have been ODI series wins against South Africa and Australia, and a T20I collection win towards India, all at domestic. Shanaka also oversaw Sri Lanka’s unbeaten run via the 2023 world Cup Qualifier. however a lot of these achievements had been interspersed with bad showings within the 2021 and 2022 T20 international Cups in addition to the 2023 ODI international Cup.
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But, it was his negative shape with the bat, primarily in ODIs, that placed him underneath the most scrutiny and made humans question his region within the aspect. As such, it turned into widely anticipated that the new selection committee might look someplace else in phrases of the captaincy.
His replacements, Mendis and Hasaranga, both have recent revel in in management roles. Mendis is a former beneath-19 captain and the modern skipper of Dambulla air of mystery within the LPL. halfway through the 2023 ODI world Cup, he took over the reins from Shanaka whilst the latter got injured. Hasaranga, who is presently recuperating from a hamstring surgery, had in advance this year led B-Love Kandy to their inaugural LPL name.
Shanaka may nevertheless play a position in Sri Lanka’s white-ball set-united statesafter he was named within the preliminary squads for the constrained-overs series in opposition to Zimbabwe at domestic in January.
