CARDIFF: Sri Lanka suffered a huge blow ahead of the virtual quarter-final of ICC Champions Trophy against Pakistan when their middle order batsman Kusal Perera was ruled out of the remainder of the tournament with a hamstring injury.
Perera suffered a hamstring injury in Sri Lanka’s seven-wicket victory over defending champions India at The Oval on Thursday, 8 June.
He is the second Sri Lanka player after Chamara Kapugedera and fourth overall after Chris Woakes of England and Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz to withdraw from the tournament.
ICC has, meanwhile, approved Dhananjaya de Silva as a replacement player for Kusal Perera in the Sri Lanka squad for the tournament.
De Silva, a 25-year-old right-handed top-order batsman and an off-spinner, has represented Sri Lanka in 16 ODIs in which he has scored 334 runs and taken four wickets. His last ODI was against South Africa at Centurion earlier this year.
Sri Lanka will face-off Pakistan in the last group match of ICC Champions Trophy on Monday and the game carries the status of a virtual quarter-final for both the teams as the winner of the match will go thru the semifinals of the eight-team tournament.
