Follow UsSri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on November 17 (Monday), announced that the national team’s ODI and T20I skipper Charith Asalanka and pacer Asitha Fernanado will head back home from Pakistan midway through their commitments to play the ODIs as well as the T20I Tri-Series on the tour.
The move was necessitated by illness to the players, as revealed by the board in a social media post. Their replacements have already been sent, informed the SLC.
“This precautionary decision ensures they receive proper care and sufficient time to recover ahead of future assignments,” SLC wrote in a post on X.
Dasun Shanaka, former Sri Lanka captain, who won the 2022 Asia Cup, will lead the side in Asalanka's absence.
Earlier, just during the start of the tour, several cricketers in the Sri Lankan camp had raised the issue of security after a blast near a court compound in Islamabad had led to several deaths. Since Rawalpindi and Islamabad are close by, the players said they felt unsecured.
However, SLC, in co-ordination with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), made sure that the ODI series went by smoothly and the T20I Tri-Series, where Zimbabwe is the third side, will also follow suit.
SLC had publicly issued a statement that those players, who would abandon the series, will be replaced by others and the series will continue while the players, when they return back home, would have to face formal review by the board.
The T20I Tri-Series begins November 18 with hosts Pakistan taking on Zimbabwe in Rawalpindi.