Sri Lanka Cricket Announces Dhananjaya De Silva As New Test Captain

Sri Lanka wants to begin 2024 with a new captain for each format. Dhananjaya De Silva is the new Test Captain of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan Cricket Board announced on Thursday morning. De Silva will be the 18th captain Sri Lanka in men's Tests and he will start his leadership by playing the one-off Test against Afghanistan. Batter Kusal Mendis (ODIs) and all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga (T20Is) are being looked at as captains in white-ball cricket.

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"The new Chairman of Selectors, Upul Tharanga while announcing that Dhananjaya de Silva had been appointed as the new captain of the Sri Lanka Test Cricket Team, and that much as the option would have been for one captain for all three formats that there was no other choice than to go forthree separate captains in Kusal Mendis for ODIs and Wanindu Hasaranga (for T20Is) because there was no suitable automatic choice, observed that his selection committee's immediate concern was to fix the inconsistency bugging the top order batting as well as poor fielding that had led to the country's recent world cup debacle. However, he said that Hasaranga had been earmarked as a long-term choice," said a statement from Sri Lanka Cricket.

Dhananjaya replaces Dimuth Karunaratne, who led SL in 30 Tests, winning 12, losing 12 and six draws. He led SL to a series win in South Africa back in 2019, becoming the first-ever Asian side to do so.

"We came apart at the World Cup due to the bugging inconsistency in the batting where mainly the top four who are the nucleus failed to click. If a batsman scored in one game his failure thereafter was a major setback and we aim to arrest that major drawback. All these players are not short of talent, but there is an obvious shortcoming where consistency is concerned and we have already spoken with the coaches concerned regarding sorting out this problem," said Upul Tharanga, the newly appointed Chairman of Selectors.

Tharanga also said that a selection benchmark would be in place for selections with emphasis on the National Super League where promising players would be identified and given due recognition for national duty.

Meanwhile, the question of Mendis' inconsistent batting performances at the World Cup was another key topic with Tharanga contending that they had decided for Mendis as the ODI captain after suddenly thrown into the job following regular captain Dasun Shanaka's injury.