The Event Technical Committee of the ICC men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, which oversees the approval of player replacements through the tournament, has approved the appointment of Dushmantha Chameera as the replacement of Lahiru Kumara after the later was ruled out due to an unfortunate injury.

Kumara picked up three crucial wickets in Sri Lanka’s resounding victory over the defending champions England in Bengaluru in their last game. He dismissed Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, and Ben Stokes, finishing with figures of 3-35 and getting rewarded with the Player of the Math award.

However, just as he was hitting peak form and rhythm, Kumara suffered a thigh injury while training in Pune for their next game against Afghanistan. Consequently, he has been ruled out of the World Cup and has been replaced by senior right-arm seamer Chameera.

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Chameera didn’t make the original World Cup squad due an injury himself, but has now found his way back into the team mid-way through the tournament and might even make his way directly into the XI just like senior-pro Angelo Mathews did in the last game.

Chameera has 50 ODI wickets to his name from 44 matches at an average of 33.16 and is known to swing the ball away from the right-handers with the new ball. In an otherwise inexperienced bowling line up, Chameera will add much needed experience.

With two wins from five games, Sri Lanka are currently sitting at the fifth position on the points table with four points to their name. However, their net run rate is in the negative and Australia, who are just above them at the fourth spot, have eight points, four more than Sri Lanka, despite only playing one game more than them.

While Sri Lanka are still in with a chance of qualifying for the semi-finals, they might have to depend on other results to go their way.