Lasith Malinga © Getty Images
The Sri Lankan fast pacer, Lasith Malinga, has been ruled out from the New Zealand series due to knee injury while playing against West Indies last month. The 32-year-old, who has taken 291 wickets in 191 One-Day Internationals (ODIs), failed to sustain the injury. This has turned out to be a major blow for Sri Lanka. Thisara Perera will take over the slot of Malinga. Malinga was to captain the Twenty20 (T20) matches after the ODI matches. Speaking about the Malinga’s injury, New Zealand’s coach Craig McMillan said that this is a huge loss for the visitors.
As reported on cricbuzz.com, McMillan said, “That’s a big loss, what a contributor he’s been over a number of years for Sri Lanka. He’s been their key fast bowler. He’s a handful. I’m sure they’ll miss him, but it gives an opportunity to some other younger guys in the squad.” Malinga is in the last to be ruled out of the tour after Sri Lanka lost Test spearhead Dhammika Prasad during the warm-up game at Queenstown earlier this month.
New Zealand is all set to take over Sri Lanka on their first ODI match on December 26. It consists of five ODI matches and two T20I matches will begin from January 7 and end on January 10. Hosts New Zealand comfortably rode to a five-wicket win over visitors Sri Lanka on Day Four in second Test of the series at Seddon Park, Hamilton on Monday, thus winning the series 2-0 and registering a whitewash. Sri Lanka will definitely look to win the ODIs to seal an equal win.