On Friday (January 24), Sri Lanka announced an 18-player squad for the upcoming home Test series against Australia, including two uncapped players.
Sri Lanka name two uncapped players in Test squad; Ramesh Mendis excluded
There had been injury fears over skipper Dhananjaya de Silva and opener Pathum Nissanka, and star batter Kamindu Mendis had received the all-clear for this series earlier this week. All three players have been named in the squad, which has a settled look to it.
The two players to miss out from Sri Lanka's last Test series, their tour of South Africa, are left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya and pacer Kasun Rajitha. In their place, wrist-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay, as well as batter Lahiru Udara and spin-bowling all-rounder Sonal Dinusha have made the cut.
Udara and Dinusha are still uncapped at Test level, although Udara has made one appearance in T20 internationals – against Afghanistan at the Asian Games quarterfinals in 2023. He batted at No.6 and was dismissed for a three-ball duck as Sri Lanka collapsed to 108 not out in pursuit of 117.
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The 24-year-old Dinusha has made 44 first-class appearances thus far, scoring 2,285 runs and picking up 94 wickets at healthy batting and bowling averages of 40.1 and 24.1 respectively. His last six first-class innings have seen him rack up scores of 107, 117*, 85*, 116*, 30 & 62.
The other major exclusion from the squad is that of off-spinner Ramesh Mendis, who has taken 62 of his 69 Test wickets at Galle, the venue for both Tests against Australia. Mendis had been left out of Sri Lanka's last home Test against New Zealand, in favour of debutant Nishan Peiris, who took nine wickets in the match. Peiris has been named in this squad as well.
Sri Lanka Test squad for Australia series
Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamindu Mendis, Oshada Fernando, Lahiru Udara, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Sonal Dinusha, Prabath Jayasuriya, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nishan Peiris, Milan Rathnayake, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara.
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