Dhananjaya de Silva replaces Dimuth Karunaratne as Sri Lanka's new test captain

Dhananjaya de Silva has so far played 51 tests for Sri Lanka and scored 3301 runs and taken 34 wickets in them.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) brought a major change in their setup as they replaced Dimuth Karunaratne with Dhananjaya de Silvs as the new test skipper. Dhananjaya De Silva will make his captaincy debut against Afghanistan in the one-off test match scheduled in February, 2024.

The newly appointed chairman of selector Upul Tharanga announced Dhananjaya De Silva’s name as the new captain of Sri Lankan test side. Sri Lanka now have three captains for three different formats of international cricket. Kusal Mendis has been named as the ODI captai, while Wanindu Hasaranga will lead the team in T20Is, and de Silva will lead the country in whites.

Upul Tharanga also emphasised on Sri Lanka’s top-order and fielding shortcomings across formats and said, “All there players are not short of talent, but there is an obvious shortcoming where is consistency where consistency is concerned, and we have already spoken with the coaches concerned regarding sorting out this problem.”

Sri Lanka created history under Dimuth Karunaratne

Former captain Dimuth Karunaratne led Sri Lanka in 30 test matches. Sri Lanka won 12 test matches under Karunaratne’s leadership and lost 12 games. Sri Lanka secured a historic test series win in South Africa under Dimuth Karunaratne in 2019. Sri Lanka are the only Asian side to defeat South Africa in their backyard in a test series.

Sri Lanka’s newly appointed captain Dhananjaya De Silva has so far played 51 test matches in his career. Dhananjaya made his test debut against Australia at Pallekele Stadium in 2016. He has so far scored 3301 runs at an average of 39.77 and smashed 10 test hundreds for his side. Dhananjaya also contributed immensely with his spin bowling and picked up 34 test wickets.

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