Ahead of the second Test against India, Sri Lanka has received a huge boost as their skipper Dinesh Chandimal has joined the team in Colombo. The 27-year old, who was handed the Test captaincy earlier this month, missed the series-opener at Galle due to pneumonia. He spent four days in the hospital and was advised to take bed rest for a couple of days after being discharged.
Sri Lanka’s Cricket Manager Asanka Gurusinha confirmed the news on Sunday (July 30) and sounded confident about the batsman’s participation in the next Test starting on August 3 at Colombo.
“Chandimal looks fine for the second Test. He started training two days ago. I spent some time with him today and he has checked in to the team hotel,” Gurusinha was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
“We will still monitor him and work with doctors. But the main thing is that Chandimal is happy and we will see how it goes and then make a call. But all in all, he should be fine,” Gurusinha added.
Chandimal will be a welcome addition to the team which suffered a humiliating 340-run defeat in the opening Test under Rangana Herath’s captaincy. The right-handed batsman was made the Test captain after Angelo Mathews stepped down in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s shocking ODI series loss against Zimbabwe. In his very first game, he led the island nation to an impressive win when they chased down a record 388-run target against Zimbabwe.
Apart from the leadership, Chandimal will also provide some much-needed solidarity to Sri Lanka’s inexperienced batting lineup. The hosts were bowled out for 291 and 245 in both the innings on a flat Galle deck with none of their batsmen managing to cross the three-digit mark. Their miseries were only compounded by Asela Gunaratne’s absence who was ruled out of the match and later the series after suffering a thumb injury in the first innings while attempting a diving catch in the slip cordon.