Sri Lanka sweats over player injury concerns

• First T20 International against India at Lucknow today
• Hasaranga yet to recover from COVID-19, set to miss India T20s

With question marks over the fitness of key players Kusal Mendis and Maheesh Theekshana and with Wanindu Hasaranga ruled out after being tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time, Sri Lanka

Dasun Shanaka

Wanindu Hasaranga

will approach the first of three T20Is against India at Lucknow today quite apprehensively.

A Sri Lanka Cricket media release stated: “Wanindu Hasaranga, who was in isolation after contracting COVID-19, has once again returned a positive result when a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) was conducted on the player yesterday (22 February). A PCR test too confirmed the result. He was first found to be positive during a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on 15 February. The player was transferred to Melbourne from Canberra and will remain in isolation until he returns a negative PCR Test report.”

Sri Lanka’s white ball captain Dasun Shanaka said that he hoped that Hasaranga who had undergone a further PCR test and was waiting for the result would be able to join the team for the last two T20Is at Dharamsala on 26 and 27 February.

The injuries to Mendis and Theekshana, Shanaka said they were waiting for a final report on their MRI scan which they were expected to receive yesterday. If both Hasaranga and Theekshana are unavailable for today’s game the options left to Shanaka are to select from the three other spinners Praveeen Jayawickrama, Jeffrey Vandersay and uncapped Ashian Daniel.

Shanaka said that he did not expect any big difference in the conditions except for the bounce which they will have to adjust to. He expressed confidence that his players have the skill to adapt to the Indian pitches.

Sri Lanka’s top order batting was a major concern in Australia and Shanaka said that he was looking forward to his batters firing in the series against India and giving his bowlers a better chance to win the matches.

“Although we lost the series to Australia our bowlers did a splendid job over there. We expect stiffer competition from India than when they last came to Sri Lanka because their main players are back in the side. It will be tough but we’ve got a good side and we are ready to take them on.” (ST)