Key Sri Lanka cricketer to retire after second Australia Test

GALLE: Former Sri Lanka captain and experienced opening batter Dimuth Karunaratne will call time on his glittering professional career after his landmark 100th Test, against Australia here.

The left-handed opener, who has been going through a rough patch since the start of 2024, averaging just 27.05, said it was the ‘right time’ to hang up his boots as the Island nation have now ample backup to replace him in the form of youngsters.

"It was the right time to go, considering there are three or four younger players who could come in for the next WTC cycle," Karunaratne told a cricket news website.

"Plus, this match was in Galle, where I made my debut, so it will be nice to finish things there.

"After the first Test against Australia ended, I told SLC that the next Test would be my last."

The former captain also shared his excitement on the prospects of representing his country in 100 Tests but shared that his inability to achieve the 10,000-run landmark would be one of his regrets.

"Playing 100 Tests is a tough thing to accomplish, especially when you're an opening batter and you're doing the dirty work for the team," Karunaratne said.

"If I have regrets, one of them would be not being able to get to 10,000 Test runs. I thought the way that I was going in 2017, 2018 and 2019, that I'd have the chance to get there. But then Covid hit, and Sri Lanka don't play as many Tests anymore,” he added.

Dimuth Karunaratne also expressed his disappointment over not being able to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

"I'd also have loved to make it to a World Test Championship final and experience that feeling of being in a final. We were close twice, but it never happened."

For the unversed, Karunaratne, who made his Test debut in 2012, went on to play 99 matches and accumulated 7,172 runs at a decent average of 39.40 with the help of 16 centuries and 39 fifties.

He also captained Sri Lanka in 30 Tests from 2019 to 2024 and was also nominated for the ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year Award in 2021.