A Sri Lankan Cricket (SLC) official has dismissed claims that Wanindu Hasaranga came out of retirement and was eventually included in the Test squad to avoid missing games in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
On March 19, the International Cricket Council punished Hasaranga for two Tests against Bangladesh. Before the ICC announced its decision, Hasaranga, who retired in August of last year, was named to the squad for the two Tests against Bangladesh.
If he hadn’t missed the two Tests, Hasaranga would have missed four ODIs or T20Is for violating item 2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which pertains to “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision” during the third ODI against Bangladesh.
“Actually the information is incorrect (that he was picked intentionally to avoid match ban in T20 World Cup). Hasaranga had given us a letter well before and the selectors thought about it and decided to pick him for the Test series. It’s got nothing to do with that incident,” team manager Mahinda Halangoda said.
Speaking about the next Test series, Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya De Silva expressed confidence in the team’s ability to succeed against Bangladesh and emphasized the importance of experience.
“The target is to win the Test series. It’s not about conditions, it’s about the way you play. We also won a Test series in Sri Lanka against Afghanistan and think we will have a good match against Bangladesh too,” said Dhananjaya.
“In any format of cricket, experience is valuable and we have lot of experience in our side, like you mention, in Angelo (Mathews) and Chandimal (Dinesh).”
Hosts Bangladesh will be missing Mushfiqur Rahim, who is recovering from a damaged right thumb, and head coach Chandika Hathurusingha admitted on Thursday that it will be difficult to compensate for the loss of such a seasoned campaigner.
“We are going to miss Mushy’s experience. He is in good form. It is very hard to replace this kind of experience straightaway. We are going to back our young players. Hridoy is coming in. We also have (Shahadat Hossain) Dipu and Shadman (Islam) in the squad. They have been with the Test team lately. It is an exciting time for Bangladesh cricket with so many young players. I will ask them to grab every opportunity,” Hathurusingha told reporters at ZACS.
“The mood is good in the camp. There are a lot of new faces. We have different teams in red and white-ball cricket. The new boys are bringing a lot of energy and enthusiasm.”
Hathurusingha expects uncapped pacer Mushfik Hasan or Nahid Rana to make the playing XI, if not both.
“They are both exciting prospects for Bangladesh. They can both bowl 140-plus. They are very young. They are strong boys. They made good starts to their first-class careers. They bowled lots of overs. I am looking forward to seeing one of them playing in this game, if not both.”
Hathurusingha also expects Litton Kumar Das, who is now out of form, to resume running and regain confidence.
“I expect him to contribute significantly more runs in red-ball cricket. He is doing fine. It is a different ballgame. He’ll have more time to become settled in. We have no doubts about his skill. We know he’s going through a hard period in white ball cricket. We hope he returns to form.”
Bangladesh will be hoping Jaker Hasan is fit and ready for the first Test after leaving the field with a finger injury while batting.
Bangladesh will play Sri Lanka at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on March 22 in the first game of a two-game series as part of the International Cricket Council Test Championship.
