Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga out of Sri Lanka Test squad for tour of England – Cricket
Sri Lankan pacers, Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews, are not part of the Sri Lanka Test squad announced for the tour of England.
Mathews is still recovering from a quad muscle injury due to which he was deprived of a spot in the World Cup Final and also from the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). Malinga’s fitness has been doubtful for the Test match for some time now. He last played a test match in a home series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 last year. Even then he did not play all three matches and rested for the second match. He has played only 30 Tests in a period of seven years and has been scarcely used by Sri Lanka to keep him fresh for the shorter formats of the game in which he has proved himself more effective.
Sri Lanka’s 16-member squad has four pace bowlers including Dilhara Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep and Chanaka Welegedara. Nuwan Kulasekara, who played in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758’s prior Test series against West Indies, is not part of the squad for the tour of England.
While Lakmal has intimidated opponents in his debut Test series against the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760, uncapped Pradeep is known to have a hurling action similar to Malinga’s. Only one bowling all-rounder is in the squad.
Fresh faces int he squad include Lahiru Thirimanne and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 last year as a wicketkeeper-batsman.
Tillakaratne Dilshan has been appointed the new Skipper of the squad for the tour of England, while vice-captain for the Sri Lankan team is yet to be decided. This will be Dilshan’s first assignment as a Captain in an overseas Test tour after the retirement of the magical right arm off-spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157.
The departure timing for the tour has been a matter of debate because eleven Sri Lankan’s, including former Skipper Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, are currently playing in the Indian Premier League. The English squad has similar scheduling conflicts, with seven of their members playing in the same league.
Earlier, Sri Lanka Cricket had asked players to report to Colombo by 5 May, 2011, five days before the team’s departure for England. The move was criticised by Muralitharan, who said that the players had earlier expected to play in the IPL until 20 May.
The finalized Sri Lankan squad is as follows:
1 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 2 Tharanga Paranavitana, 3 Lahiru Thirimanne, 4 Kumar Sangakkara, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Dinesh Chandimal, 8 http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ajantha-c42419 Mendis, 12 Rangana Herath, 13 Dilhara Fernando, 14 Chanaka Welegedara, 15 Suranga Lakmal, 16 Nuwan Pradeep
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