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Kusal Perera
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Sri Lanka will be without their hard hitting attacking top order batsman Avishka Fernando for at least another six months, after he underwent surgery in his right knee in Australia.
Sri Lanka Cricket Medical Advisory Committee Head Prof. Arjuna de Silva said that Dr. David Young performed the surgery on Avishka which was successful and that it would take about six months for him to recover.
Dr. Young is a renowned orthopaedic surgeon in Australia and has performed several surgeries to renowned Sri Lankan cricketers in the past.
“Avishka had an ACL injury in his knee. It is not very common with cricket, but it’s a common sports injury,” said Prof. de Silva.
An ACL injury is a tear or sprain of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) – one of the strong bands of tissue that help connect the thigh bone (femur) to your shinbone (tibia).
Fernando suffered the injury during practice in Australia last month and played in only the first two T20 Internationals in Sydney failing to make an impact being dismissed for 6 and 5.
Hopefully Fernando should be fit to play in the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia beginning in October.
Apart from Fernando there are several other Sri Lankan cricketers recovering from injuries.
One of Sri Lanka’s most explosive openers Kusal Perera has been out of the national side since the T20 World Cup in November.
“Kusal Perera has been given an injection in his shoulder and hopefully he should be back. We have no surgery plans for him. He was only given the injection,” said Prof. de Silva. Perera also suffered another setback when he was tested for COVID-19 from which he has now recovered.
“The injuries to Maheesh Theekshana and Kusal Mendis are very minor and Wanindu Hasaranga is okay and will be back. He has to undergo a fitness test.”
Theekshana and Mendis suffered hamstring injuries during the fifth T20I against Australia at Melbourne and returned home missing the Indian leg of the tour.
Hasaranga was tested COVID-19 positive twice in Australia during the T20I series and was forced to return home without travelling to India for the T20I series.
Off-spinner Ramesh Mendis fractured his right thumb whilst batting during practice in Australia and is currently undergoing rehabilitation.
“Generally, it’s nothing bad. Other than for Avishka the others will be back soon,” assured Prof. de Silva.
Commenting on the fitness of Bhanuka Rajapaksa, a powerful left-hander with big hitting prowess, Prof. de Silva stated that he has to reduce his skinfolds.
“Other than that, he is okay. He has done the fitness runs but he has to reduced fatness in the body. The last time he reduced it and played in the T20 World Cup. Now that he is training, he should be okay. He has to play IPL also, but franchises don’t demand fitness tests, only national teams,” Prof. de Silva said.
Rajapaksa has been brought by Punjab Kings for the upcoming IPL.
Amongst the other injured Sri Lankan players who will making their appearance in the IPL are Hasaranga (Royal Challengers Bangalore), and Theekshana (Chennai Super Kings).
Sri Lanka’s next international assignment is against Bangladesh for two Test matches in Bangladesh in end May which are part of the ICC Test Championships.
