Sahan Arachchige to lead SL ‘A’

Sri Lanka ‘A’, led by Sahan Arachachige, will begin their five-match 50-over cricket series against the visiting Afghanistan ‘A’ at the Sooriyawewa Stadium today.

Sri Lanka ‘A’ includes national players, Chamika Karunaratne, once the favoured bowling allrounder, Nishan Madushaka, the Test opener, Nuwanindu Fernando, who has featured in five limited over matches for Sri Lanka, Dushan Hemantha who was part of Sri Lanka’s last ODI World Cup campaign and Arachchige, himself a national limited over player, will look to impress with their performance as they look to bounce back to the national team.

The tour will be important for Karunaratne, who featured in last two T20 World Cups, but has missed out his place in the national side since of late to earn a place in the USA bound Sri Lanka World Cup squad. Karunaratne is the only player among the 14-man Sri Lanka ‘A’ squad, to be named in a list of 25 World Cup probables.

Also back in the reckoning is Kamil Mishara, the young wicket-keeper batter. Mishara completed a year-long ban for breaching the player code of conduct. Mishara was expelled from the national cricket team during the series against Bangladesh in May after he had taken a ‘visitor’ to his hotel room despite warnings from the hotel authorities not to do so.

In addition to the national players, the team also includes domestic stars like leg spinner Wanuja Sahan, former national Under-19 player Ahan Wickramasinghe, leg-spinning allrounder Nimesh Vimukthi and middleorder batter Pavan Ratnayake. Tharindu Ratnayake, who was selected, will not be able to play due to an illness and a replacement is to be named.

The Afghanistan ‘A’ team arrived on Tuesday. At the end of the limited over series the ream will head to Colombo for a one-off four-day match at the P. Sara Oval.