Colombo: Sri Lanka’s cricket board on Wednesday appointed Dimuth Karunaratne as the captain of the Sri Lankan 15-man squad for the ICC World Cup.
30-year-old Karunaratne , who replaced Lasith Malinga as ODI skipper, last played an ODI in the World Cup 2015. He has overall played only 17 ODIs, scoring 190 runs at an average of 15.83 with one half-century.
The left-handed Karunaratne recently led the Sri Lankan side to a historic 2-0 Test triumph in South Africa and made the Island country the only Asian side to win a Test series in South Africa.
In March this year, Karunaratne was in the news for wrong reasons. He was arrested for drink-driving and subsequently fined $7,500 following a road mishap here.
Sri Lanka will take on New Zealand in their opening match of the ICC World Cup on June 1.
Sri Lanka World Cup squad: Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), Avishka Fernando, Suranga Lakmal, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Jeevan Mendis, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera (wk), Thisara Perera, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Isuru Udana and Jeffrey Vandersay.
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Ms Kalinga