Rangana Herath, the most successful left-arm spinner in Test match history, will retire after the series opener against England.
The 40-year-old Sri Lanka tweaker will bow out in Galle next month – the same venue where he made his debut 19 years ago. Herath is second only to Muttiah Muralitharan in the Sri Lanka wicket-taking charts, and of those currently playing only England’s Stuart Broad and James Anderson are ahead of him in terms of Test match wickets.
Since the retirement of his compatriot, however, Herath has played in 70 of Sri Lanka’s 81 Tests, picking up 359 wickets at 25.98.
The veteran’s finest hour arguably came in the Colombo Test against Pakistan in 2014, where he achieved a match-haul of 14-184. It was an opposition that proved fruitful, with 230 of his Test scalps coming against them.
