Following a torrid end to 2023 with their cricket in shambles, Sri Lanka has something to feel delighted about, as newly-appointed chief selector Upul Tharanga has named a new Test captain in Dhananjaya de Silva. De Silva will replace the seasoned campaigner and opener Dimuth Karunaratne, becoming the 18th player to lead the Island Nation in Tests.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!This announcement comes shortly after the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) named two separate captains in the white-ball formats, with batter Kusal Mendis to lead the ODI team and star player Wanindu Hasaranga named the T20I captain. De Silva’s first assignment will be the one-off Test against Afghanistan, starting February 6.
De Silva replaced Karunaratne, who captained Sri Lanka in 30 Tests, winning 12, losing as many and drawing six. Right after he got appointed as the Test skipper in early 2019, Karunaratne guided Sri Lanka to perhaps their most famous Test series win in South Africa, becoming the first Asian team to do so and third ever in history.
Meanwhile, during the troublesome time in Sri Lankan Cricket, Karunaratne took over the Test captaincy, bringing a sense of stability and calmness to the dressing room.
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Although Sri Lanka didn’t get the desired results during his tenure, his numbers as a batter improved drastically. In comparison to his overall Test average of 40.93, the left-handed opener averaged 49.86 as the captain and even topped the batting charts in this format. ICC also named him in the Test Team of the Year in 2018 and 2021.
However, with Tharanga in charge of things in Sri Lanka cricket, he said he would have liked the same captain in all three formats, but because of limitations, he had to pick three separate skippers.
“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.”
De Silva is also an experienced player, having featured in 51 Tests for Sri Lanka, scoring ten centuries and 13 fifties to his name.
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