Udawatte gets Test call-up for Windies tour

Sri Lanka suffered a huge blow ahead of the tour of West Indies with prolific opener Dimuth Karunaratne ruled out of the three-match series.

Karunaratne fractured his left index finger during training a fortnight ago and although specialists were confident that he will be able to make it to the side before the first Test in Trinidad that gets underway on June 6, the selectors have made a call.

Although on previous tours Sri Lanka would have taken a chance by bringing their prolific opener straight into the series, the fitness guidelines issued by the Ministry of Sports stresses on proper assessment of fitness. As a result, the selectors are keen to assess players’ match fitness before bringing them back to competitive cricket.

Karunaratne, who only plays Test cricket, was prolific last year as he scored over 1000 runs in the calendar year becoming the first Sri Lankan to do so since Kumar Sangakkara in 2014. He was also named Player of the Series after Sri Lanka ended Pakistan’s unbeaten run in UAE last October. His 196 in the first innings of Sri Lanka’s first-ever pink-ball Test in Dubai remains his career-best score. The 31-year-old has been replaced by another 31-year-old - Mahela Udawatte. The left-handed batsman had made his ODI debut in Port of Spain and is certain to make his Test debut at the same venue, albeit ten years later.

Udawatte, yet another product of Ananda College, was prolific in the recent Inter-Provincial tournament as he averaged 56 in the first-class competition and averaged 62 in the List A tournament before being called up to Kandy for a training camp prior to the tour.

Danushka Gunathilaka, who was the reserve opener during the last tour of Bangladesh and played the Dhaka Test as a middle-order batsman, has been axed. Lakshan Sandakan was also dropped as the selectors backed right-arm leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay. The injured fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera was overlooked for the series with Kasun Rajitha and Asitha Fernando being named in an extended 17-member squad.

There was no place for fast bowler Dhammika Prasad, who made a comeback to domestic cricket last month after being on the sidelines for over two years following a shoulder surgery.