Sports
Dimuth reiterates he wants to focus as a batsman
By Rex Clementine
Sri Lanka’s Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne early this year had told the national selection panel that to look at other options for the role of captain for the new cycle of the Test Championship. While the selectors have requested him to continue, on Thursday, after Sri Lanka’s four wicket loss to Pakistan in Galle, Karunaratne reiterated that he would be happy to give up the captaincy.
“After I made the request, the selectors asked me to continue as captain. I have told them to reconsider my request after this series. I would like to focus purely as a batsman for my remaining few years. There are few suitable players for the leadership role. We don’t have a Test series until February next year,” Karunaratne told journalists.
Karunaratne faulted the team’s first innings batting and poor catching for the loss.
“Disappointed we didn’t put up a big score after wining the toss. It was the best time to bat. We know that the first session is the toughest with their quicks creating opportunities. We just had to see off that tough period. Dhananjaya batted well. Then after taking five early wickets, we allowed their tail to cause significant damage. We put down a few chances and they took the game away from us.”
Pakistan’s spinners are inexperienced, and it was vital that the team played the pace of Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi well to get an edge but Sri Lanka failed to do it.
“Our plan was to take their seamers out of the equation. The plan was to face the quicks well. If you see the last time when they came their spin was strong. Yasir Shah bowled really well. This time around their fast bowlers are creating more trouble while the spinners, apart from the leggie, who has some variations, the left-arm spinner and the off-spinner are bowling to a set plan. We should have fared much better.”
The Sri Lanka Cricket Selection Panel has named the following squads for the upcoming Tri-Nation ‘A’ Series and the Four-Day Series.
The Tri-Nation One-Day Series, featuring Sri Lanka ‘A’, India ‘A’, and Afghanistan ‘A’, will be played at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium (RDICS), Dambulla, commencing on 9 June 2026.
The Four-Day Series between Sri Lanka ‘A’ and India ‘A’ will be played at the Galle International Cricket Stadium (GICS), Galle, with the first match scheduled to begin on 25 June 2026.
The Sri Lanka Cricket Selection Panel has selected the following squads to play in the West Indies Emerging Tour of Sri Lanka 2026.
The West Indies and Sri Lanka emerging teams will play two four-day games and three one-day games during the bilateral contest.
The tour will begin on the 8th of June with the first four-day game at MRICS, Hambantota, while the second four-day game will start on the 15th of June at the same venue.
One-day games will be played on the 22nd, 24th, and 26th of June.
The first two one-day games will be played at the SSC, and the final at the NCC.
A two-member ICC delegation that visited Dhaka earlier this week will report its findings and observations to the governing body. According to an ICC media release, directors Dr Mohammed Moosajee and Tavengwa Mukuhlani engaged with “a range of stakeholders to review developments linked to the BCB”.
Moosajee and Mukuhlani arrived in Dhaka on June 1, after which they met BCB’s ad-hoc committee members, including president Tamim Iqbal. The pair also met with members of the BCB’s election commission, with the polls scheduled to be held on June 7.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that the delegation also met with BCB directors who had resigned from the previous board. Among the directors who didn’t resign, Asif Akbar and Ahsan Iqbal Chowdhury were in the group that also met the ICC delegation in a separate meeting on June 2.
Afterwards, Aminul Islam, the former Bangladesh captain who was the BCB president until April, claimed that they urged the ICC to not recognise any election conducted by or under the authority of the ad-hoc committee on June 7 or at any other time. Aminul, who still considers himself the BCB president, said that the BCB’s ad-hoc committee should correct their May 31 press release regarding the ICC delegations’ visit to Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s High Court rejected a writ petition that challenged the legality of the election schedule and voter list for the upcoming BCB elections on June 7.
The bench of Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty and Justice Md Ashif Hasan passed the rejection order stating that the petition was not presented properly before it. The petition was filed on May 18, a month and a bit after the country’s sports ministry dissolved the BCB’s board of directors on April 7. They appointed an 11-member ad-hoc committee led by Tamim, the former Bangladesh captain, on the same day.
[Cricinfo]
SLC name squads for Tri-Nation ‘A’ series and Four-Day series
SLC name squads for West Indies Emerging Tour of Sri Lanka 2026
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