Published: Mar 19, 2016, 02:12 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 19, 2016, 02:19 PM (IST)
Leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay will replace the injured Lasith Malinga in Sri Lanka’s cricket squad for the ongoing ICC World Twenty20 in India. Mohan de Silva, the Sri Lanka Cricket vice-President, said the 26-year-old Vandersay will depart at the earliest to join the team. Malinga has been forced out due to a magging knee injury. Vandersay was in the original World T20 squad but was overlooked by the current selection panel headed by Aravinda de Silva. The original squad was picked by the previous panel headed by Kapila Wijegoonawardena. Vandersay has played in just four T20 internationals previously, the last of which was in New Zealand in January. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan , Live Score, 16th T20 Match, Super 10 Group 1, ICC T20 World Cup 2016
Concerned about his slow recovery from knee injury, the 2014 World T20 winning skipper handed the captaincy baton to the ODI and Test skipper Mathews just ahead of the tournament. Malinga also joined the team two days ago and is terribly short on match practice having missed the two warmups against New Zealand and Pakistan which they lost. He last bowled against UAE and made an impact with his 4/26 which was instrumental in their only win in the recently concluded Asia Cup T20 in Bangladesh. ALSO READ: T20 World Cup 2016: Tillakaratne Dilshan says Sri Lanka have ability to beat any team
Earlier, around two weeks back, Malinga stepped down as Sri Lanka captain owing to injury. SLC Vice President had said then, “He will continue to make himself available for selections,” de Silva said. It is speculated that the SLC management is unhappy with Malinga’s policy of selecting games and tournaments to play based on his recurring injury. He played just the opening match of the Asia Cup in which Sri Lanka fared very badly. The islanders eventually crashed out of the tournament losing to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in what was their worse run in T20 history.”
