Sri Lanka Cricket announces Dhananjaya de Silva as new Test captain

The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) newly-appointed Chairman of Selectors Upul Tharanga on Thursday announced batter Dhananjaya de Silva as the new captain of the Test team. The immediate concern is to fix the top-order concerns and poor fielding that contributed to SL’s poor performance in the recent ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India, in which they placed at ninth with just two wins in nine matches, reported Sri Lanka Cricket. Also, batter Kusal Mendis (ODIs) and all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga (T20Is) are being looked at as captains in white-ball cricket.

“The new Chairman of Selectors, Upul Tharanga while announcing that Dhananjaya de Silva had been appointed as the new captain of the Sri Lanka Test Cricket Team, and that much as the option would have been for one captain for all three formats that there was no other choice than to go forthree separate captains in Kusal Mendis for ODIs and Wanindu Hasaranga (for T20Is) because there was no suitable automatic choice, observed that his selection committee’s immediate concern was to fix the inconsistency bugging the top order batting as well as poor fielding that had led to the country’s recent world cup debacle. However, he said that Hasaranga had been earmarked as a long-term choice,” said a statement from SLC.

Dhananjaya replaces Dimuth Karunaratne, who led SL in 30 Tests, winning 12, losing 12 and six draws. He led SL to a series win in South Africa back in 2019, becoming the first-ever Asian side to do so. During his stint as a captain, Karunaratne also reached to the top of the ICC Test Batting Rankings.

Tharanga said that currently, his selection team was also leasing with the High-Performance Center to fix the shortcomings. “We came apart at the World Cup due to the bugging inconsistency in the batting where mainly the top four who are the nucleus failed to click. If a batsman scored in one game his failure thereafter was a major setback and we aim to arrest that major drawback. All these players are not short of talent, but there is an obvious shortcoming where consistency is concerned and we have already spoken with the coaches concerned regarding sorting out this problem,” said Tharanga.

“The fielding too was found wanting with a lot of dropped chances where mainly half chances went a begging which at that level of the game have to be taken in keeping with the adage ‘catches win matches,” opined Upul Tharanga, the former Sri Lanka opening batsman addressing the media at the Sri Lanka Cricket headquarters.

He was of course, pleased with the overall bowling performances of the team saying that the bowlers had played their part. He said that a selection benchmark would be in place for selections with emphasis on the National Super League where promising players would be identified and given due recognition for national duty.

Fielding questions as to team discipline and the recent misbehaviour of ODI captain, Kusal Mendis, the chief selector said that his committee was addressing that area seriously, and that so far the report from the SSC committee on the matter had not reached the SLC for them to look at it.

The question of Mendis’ inconsistent batting performances at the World Cup was another key subject with Tharanga contending that they had opted for Mendis as the ODI captain considering that he was suddenly thrown into the job after regular captain Dasun Shanaka’s injury. “We took into account that therefore, Mendis needed a fair chance to settle down to the job,” he contended.

Meanwhile, selector Indika de Saram made the point that regular players particularly the batters would be pressurized to perform by looking at promising prospects who were knocking on the door for recognition.