Dimuth Karunaratne wants to pass on captaincy torch to next cricketer

Web Desk

20th Mar, 2023. 04:08 pm
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Dimuth Karunaratne wants to leave his position as Test captain.
He will be stepping down after the Ireland series.
He has been the captain of Sri Lanka for four years.

After the Ireland Matches later this month, Dimuth Karunaratne wants to leave his position as Test captain.

The Sri Lankan selection committee is still in discussion with him and has not yet accepted his resignation.

Karunaratne, who turns 35 in April, has held the position for four years, but with a new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle approaching and the Ireland Matches not being a part of the current WTC, he wishes to pass the reins to a new captain for the next cycle.

“I’ve talked with the selectors about stepping down as captain after the Ireland series. In the next WTC cycle, you’ve got to do two years,” Karunaratne said. “I think it’s best if a new captain does that whole cycle than for me to do half and hand over. I’ve talked to the selectors about this, but I haven’t got a response yet. My preference is to hand over to a new leader after the next series.”

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From the previous turbulent time, Karunaratne has guided Sri Lanka to some stability. His 2-0 victory in South Africa in 2019—during his maiden series in the position—remains his biggest triumph as captain. South Africa has never been defeated at home by a team other than Australia and England.

His overall record as captain thus far is composed of ten wins, ten losses, and six ties. Only Sanath Jayasuriya, Arjuna Ranatunga, Mahela Jayawardene, and Angelo Mathews had captained Sri Lanka in at least 34 Tests and had more victories as the team’s captain. Since that Sri Lanka will only play two-Test series in the upcoming WTC cycle, part of his intention to step aside as captain may be to concentrate on his batting and possibly pursue possibilities abroad.

Before the New Zealand series, which finished earlier in the day when Sri Lanka lost by an inning and 58 runs in the second Test in Wellington, Karunaratne had played grade cricket in Australia since his most recent Test. After a lengthy break from playing in Tests, he nevertheless got three fifties in four innings throughout this series. Only four of Sri Lanka’s six scheduled Test matches in 2023 will count toward the subsequent WTC.

“I played Tests after eight months. I only got to play one inning in a four-day match in between,” Karunaratne said. “I’m someone who gets a big one after getting a start, so I think I don’t have that patience at the moment, and I need to go back to domestic cricket and develop that again.

“After eight months, although I made some runs here, I could have done more, I think. Twice, I think I could have turned half-centuries into hundreds, and I wasted them.”