Bipin Dani
Sri Lankan selectors are waiting for the arrival of captain Dasun Shanaka to finalize the squad for the upcoming three ODIs’ against Afghanistan.
The 31-year-old all rounder is in India playing for the Gujarat Titans team in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“The selectors have noty finalized the team and await caprtain Shanaka to join the meeting”, one of the sources revealed. “Yes, he could have been consulted over the tele-conference but as we have to play the qualifying matches (in Zimbabwe) for the World Cup, the selectors feel that his personal attendence for his inputs are important”.
Shanaka’s team is playing its 2nd qualifier (against Mumbai Indians) on Friday and is expected to return to his country either on Saturday or Sunday depending upon the result of the match. “The Sri Lankan team will be leaving for Hambantota on Monday. Once Shanka is here, will immediately finalise the squad”, the source explained. The provisioinal approval for 30 players have already been taken and if there is no player from outside of these 30 is selected, there won’t be any hassel. Kusal Perera is not fuilly recovered and is certainly out of the squad. Pathum Nissanka, the 25-year-old top order batter, who was recently injured seems to have recovered well, it is learnt.
The three selectors are believed to have shared their assignments, and accordingly, Romesh Kaluwitharana is likely to be in Hambantota for the three ODIs, the chief selector Pramodya Wickramasinghe is likely to travel to Zimbabwe. and the third selector Hemantha Wickramaratne will be in Kandy for the A team against the visiting South Africa team. Incidentally, the Sri Lanka A team will have new captain. The possible candidate Kamindu Mendis is suffering from Dengue and is out of the matches.
