DDS becomes Sri Lanka’s 18th Test captain

by Rex Clementine   

The wait is over for Dhananjaya de Silva (DDS) as he has been finally given the distinction of captaining the nation’s Test cricket team becoming just the 18th man to do so. The 32-year-old has been captain in waiting and was supposed to take over from Dimuth Karunaratne at the end of the last Test Championship cycle but was sidelined by the national selection panel, yet another strange decision of Pramodya Wickremesinghe’s selection committee.

The appointment of DDS by the new selection panel brings to an end an excellent run by Dimuth Karunaratne, who skippered Sri Lanka in 30 Test matches. He won 12 Tests and lost 12 and the highlight of his captaincy was a stunning series win in South Africa.

Thus, Sri Lanka became the first Asian nation to win a Test series in South Africa in 2019 and India and Pakistan with much better pace attacks and bigger budgets are still struggling to win a series in South Africa.

Dimuth, an honest man had wanted to step down after Sri Lanka’s tour of New Zealand last year providing the new captain ample time to set up his priorities in the new cycle of the World Test Championship. However, he was irrationally persuaded to continue making DDS to wait further for his turn.

Dimuth became the longest serving Sri Lankan captain since Arjuna Ranatunga having done the job for nearly five years. Arjuna was at the helm for ten years, eight of them at a stretch.

Dhananjaya has been the understudy for Dimuth for three years and he is known as a reserved type. His calmness is extended beyond the batting crease to the dressing room as well, but now that he has become the captain, he has got to be firmer. It’s a bad idea to have a laid-back Head Coach, Manager and Captain.

Now that he has been axed from the ODI side, DDS has all the time to concentrate on Test match cricket. Although he will start off his stint with the one-off game against Afghanistan, the bigger challenge will be later this year when he leads the team in England in a three match Test series.

The door has not been completely shut on DDS in one-day cricket as selectors have indicated that he is not their man for the number six slot. He has been asked to bat top of the order in domestic cricket and in the ongoing one-day competition he bats at number three.

DDS also changed clubs during this domestic season. While he represented Tamil Union in the First-Class tournament, he moved over to CCC for the one-day competition, and he’s expected to remain there for a while.

Sri Lanka have ten Tests this year. Apart from the one-off game against Afghanistan and three match series in England, they will host New Zealand for two Tests and travel to Bangladesh and South Africa for two Tests each.