Sri Lanka’s ODI captain Kusal Mendis who is currently experiencing a lean patch with the bat is set to be rested, while two stars who were overlooked for the concluded ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the US and the West Indies Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Janith Perera, are set to be recalled by the selectors, ahead of the upcoming home white-ball series against India, informed sources told ‘The Daily Morning Sports.’
Wicket-keeper batter Mendis who made his T20 debut eight years ago first functioned as an opener for the country in the format in 2018.
Since then he had opened the innings in 46 matches while managing to score 1395 runs with 14 half centuries for an average of 31.70.
However, the opening batter had failed to make a serious impact in any of the T20Is played this year or even in the ongoing LPL tournament thus making his place in the team clearly untenable.
Mendis had played in 12 T20Is from January this year to the concluded T20 World Cup, while he had been able to accumulate only 359 runs with two half-tons for an average of 29.91, which is a paltry return for a technically sound batter like him.
The stroke-maker who also functions as an opening batter of the Jaffna Kings team in the ongoing LPL tournament has only managed to score 106 runs in eight appearances which further underscore his current batting woes.
Selectors therefore have opted to rest the ODI captain from the forthcoming three-match T20I series against the world champions thus allowing him to refocus and return to the format later this year.
In the meantime, sources claimed that selectors have decided to recall two other seasoned stars, middle-order batter Dinesh Chandimal and opener Kusal Janith Perera to the T20 squad, ahead of the India series after they had fallen out of favour from the white-ball set up in the recent past.
Both Chandimal and Perera have continued to impress in the LPL domestic T20 tournament for their respective franchises, with the former having struck the highest number of sixes (17) for Kandy Falcons, while the latter who has maintained a strike rate of 174.09 in the LPL, is one of the four centurions of the current edition.
The selectors headed by Upul Tharanga have also recalled Avishka Fernando the LPLs highest scorer thus far with 311 runs in eight matches including four half-centuries for an average of 38.37 and a strike rate of 166.31, along with Chamika Karunaratna.
However, sources added that three seniors of the T20 team namely former captain Angelo Mathews, red-ball captain Dhananjaya de Silva and Sadeera Samarawickrema, are likely to be discarded by the selectors from the impending white-ball series.
It is believed that they will look to reinvigorate the squad with an eye on the next ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the Indian Sub-Continent in 2026 and the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup to be held in South Africa and Zimbabwe in the following year.
(JK)