Kusal Perera was surprisingly excluded from the Test squad for the upcoming Sri Lanka tour of Zimbabwe.
Kusal Perera -- a wicketkeeper-batsman for the Sri Lanka Cricket Team, led the team to an impressive chase against South Africa in the Durban Test last year. Sri Lanka achieved a famous victory and became the first side from Asia to bag a series win in South Africa.
Perera’s unbeaten 153 helped Sri Lanka chase a target of 304 during their win against South Africa in Durban. However, he wasn’t in his best of forms for New Zealand’s tour of Sri Lanka.
He achieved the highest of 23 and was dismissed without scoring in the two innings in Colombo. On top of that, he didn’t play the Test series against Pakistan.
Sri Lanka’s Chief Selector, Ashantha de Mel said, ‘Kusal is a good player, we know that. However, if Kusal is going to play in this series, he will not do the wicket-keeping. Niroshan Dickwella is going to be behind the stumps. In a situation like that, we will have to remove either Dinesh Chandimal or Angelo Mathews. However, the captain and the coach wanted to play both of them, in order to stabilize the team’.
De Mel explained that the captain and the coach of the team insisted to include Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews in the squad for the two Tests against Zimbabwe. This meant that there’s no longer a spot for Perera.
Apparently, Mathews and Chandimal were the front-line choices for Sri Lanka and Perera was included for the series in South Africa because of the unavailability of the two.
The first Test for the Sri Lanka tour of Zimbabwe will begin on January 19, while the second will be on January 27.
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