Kusal Perera becomes second casualty in Bangladesh tour

• Sri Lanka recall Niroshan Dickwella as replacement

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s top order batsman Kusal Perera was ruled out of the Bangladesh cricket tour after he was hospitalised for fever and asthma.

Perera did not travel with the Sri Lanka T20I side which left for Bangladesh on Thursday because he was ill and was to have joined the team ahead of the first T20I at Sylhet on 4 March.

However his condition had got worse and he had to be hospitalised after suffering an asthmatic attack with wheezing on top of the fever.

Sri Lanka has called for a replacement for Kusal Perera and the selectors have picked on Niroshan Dickwella who will leave for Bangladesh today.

Perera is the second casualty for Sri Lanka in the ongoing tour after regular opener Pathum Nissanka was ruled out of the T20I series with a hamstring strain.

Dickwella (30) should consider himself lucky to be back in the national squad after being given several chances despite his failure to score. He was eventually pushed out of the side after a poor display with the bat and behind the wickets in the first Test against New Zealand at Christchurch in March 2023. Since then Dickwella has not been in the shortlist of candidates for selection. His selection for the Bangladesh tour comes due to the paucity of openers in white ball cricket.

“Like I stated in my first meeting with the media we have a big vacuum for the openers’ berth,” Cricket Selectors Chairman Upul Tharanga told Daily FT. “In the top three there is Shevon Daniel and Lasith Croospulle. Shevon has failed throughout and has been dropped from the SSC team and also from the Colombo side in the ongoing NSL tournament. Croospulle is also the same. We played him in the matches against Uganda and in the NSL for Dambulla, he has failed in all of them.”

“We would like to go with a youngster but unfortunately these two have not shown any good form. In this situation we had a chat with the captain and the coach and they were of the view that it is better to have an experienced batter in the squad with the T20 World Cup in mind,” said Tharanga.

“We also need to have an extra batter in the squad in case of an injury. We have a big void in the openers’ berth that is why we had to go back to Dickwella. These are the only names of openers circulating at the moment.”

To his credit it must be said that Dickwella has been in spanking form for Kandy in the NSL 50-over tournament as Acting Captain, scoring back to back fifties as opener – 53 off 49 balls against Jaffna and a carefree 50 off 23 balls against Colombo two days ago.

Dickwella is in the squad as a replacement opener and will be considered for selection only if there is an injury to one of the top order batsmen. Avishka Fernando who came in as replacement for Nissanka will open the batting with Kusal Mendis, and Dhananjaya de Silva batting at number three. With Charith Asalanka leading the side in the absence of suspended Wanindu Hasaranga, Sri Lanka are looking at bringing in Kamindu Mendis who stroked an audacious 65* off 39 balls that nearly won the third T20I against Afghanistan.