Image Credit- AFP
Due to a respiratory infection, Kusal Perera is unable
to play in Sri Lanka’s T20I leg of their trip of Bangladesh. As a replacement,
Niroshan Dickwella will arrive by plane and join the team on Saturday. The
other members of the team left for Bangladesh on February 29.
Dickwella’s last match for the national team was in June 2022, and his last
match for Sri Lanka was in March 2023.
He has scored fifty runs in his past two List A games
in the Men’s National Super League, including a game in which he was named
Player of the Match. However, the previous group of selectors had excluded him
due to a sustained lack of success with the national team.
In 2021, Dickwella was among the three players, together with Kusal Mendis and
Danushka Gunatilake, who were banned for violating the team’s bio-bubble
protocols. Dickwella has also experienced his fair share of disciplinary
troubles.
Charith Asalanka will stand in as Sri Lanka captain in
place of the suspended Wanindu Hasaranga for the first two of three T20Is
against Bangladesh starting March 4 in Sylhet. All three T20Is will be played
in Sylhet.
Sri Lanka T20I squad: Wanindu Hasaranga (capt for last game), Charith Asalanka
(capt for first two games), Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Angelo
Mathews, Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan
Dickwella, Dilshan Madushanka, Nuwan Thushara, Matheesha Pathirana, Akila
Dananjaya, Binura Fernando, Kamindu Mendis, Avishka Fernando, Jeffrey Vandersay