Sri Lanka will host Zimbabwe and Afghanistan in January 2024, in that order. Of them, Afghanistan will play a Test match. Ahead of the twin tours, Sri Lanka Cricket named Dhananjaya de Silva their captain in Test cricket.

When he leads, de Silva will become the 18th cricketer to lead Sri Lanka in men’s Test matches (and the third of that surname, after Somachandra and Aravinda).

Dimuth Karunaratne, his predecessor, had led Sri Lanka from 2019 to 2023, but it was not an uninterrupted run. In his first series as captain, in 2018/19, Karunaratne had famously become the first Asian captain to win a Test series in South Africa.

Sri Lanka will begin 2024 with a separate captain for every format. They have replaced Dasun Shanaka in both limited-overs formats and appointed Kusal Mendis as captain in ODIs and Wanindu Hasaranga in T20Is.

“I would have preferred to have the same captain for all three formats,” said chief selector Upul Tharanga, “but we are unable to do that at the moment with the players we have.”

From 51 Test matches, de Silva has 3,301 runs at 39.77 with 10 hundreds, and 34 wickets at 57.29. He has also played 90 ODIs and 39 T20Is.

After the Afghanistan match, Sri Lanka play two Tests in Bangladesh in February.

List of Sri Lankan men’s Test captains

Bandula Warnapura (4 Tests, 1982)
Duleep Mendis (19 Tests, 1982-87)
Somachandra de Silva (2 Tests, 1983)
Ranjan Madugalle (2 Tests, 1988)
Arjuna Ranatunga (56 Tests, 1989-99)
Aravinda de Silva (6 Tests, 1991-99)
Hashan Tillakaratne (11 Tests, 1999-2004)
Sanath Jayasuriya (38 Tests, 1999-2002)
Marvan Atapattu (18 Tests, 2002-05)
Mahela Jayawardene (38 Tests, 2006-13)
Kumar Sangakkara (15 Tests, 2009-11)
Tillakaratne Dilshan (11 Tests, 2011-12)
Angelo Mathews (34 Tests, 2013-17)
Rangana Herath (5 Tests, 2016-17)
Dinesh Chandimal (19 Tests, 2017-21)
Suranga Lakmal (5 Tests, 2018)
Dimuth Karunaratne (30 Tests, 2019-23)
Dhananjaya de Silva (2024-)