Sri Lankan opener Danushka Gunathilaka who was part of the Sri Lankan squad during the Champions Trophy has been suspended by the Sri Lanka Cricket Board (SLC) for six months due to misconduct, an official of the board told Cricbuzz on Thursday (today). The 26-year youngster is learnt to have skipped a training session after partying into the wee hours at night which is just not unacceptable at the international level.
In another incident, Gunathilaka had turned up at the ground during a match day without his kit bag. Strange isn’t it? For a cricketer, a kit bag is as good as himself and to leave that during a match day is a huge offence. The incident had taken place during the bilateral ODI series against the Men in Blue.
“The team management reported Danushka for breach of discipline and SLC took a decision to suspend him for six matches. We will make a formal announcement shortly,” an SLC official was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
The southpaw made his Test debut against India at Galle during the recently concluded series. He was also part of the playing XI for the first two ODI’s before being sidelined due to an injury for the rest of the series. The southpaw was then overlooked for the subsequent series against Pakistan in the UAE.
An attacking left-handed opening batsman, Gunathilka was picked mainly by potential when he was drafted into the Sri Lankan A team for the tour of New Zealand in mid-2015. He scored two fluent half-centuries which earned him a national call-up against West Indies in November. He was not part of the Sri Lankan squad during the Champions Trophy but the injury to Chamara Kapugedara. He scored a quickfire 76 of 72 deliveries against India in the group match against India which enabled the Islanders to overhaul a target of 322.