Sri Lanka’s Dhananjaya de Silva will replace injured team-mate Kusal Perera at the Champions Trophy tournament in England and Wales, the International Cricket Council announced on Saturday.
Perera suffered a hamstring injury in Sri Lanka’s seven-wicket victory over defending champions India at the Oval on Thursday. In the process, he became the second Sri Lanka player after Chamara Kapugedera to withdraw from the tournament, featuring the world’s top eight one-day international teams.
De Silva, a 25-year-old right-handed top-order batsman and an off-spinner, has represented Sri Lanka in 16 One-day Internationals in which he has scored 334 runs and taken four wickets. His last ODI was against South Africa at Centurion earlier this year and de Silva was added to Sri Lanka’s Champions Trophy squad following the approval of the ICC’s event technical committee.
Sri Lanka will play Group B rivals Pakistan in Cardiff on Monday, with the match now a virtual quarter-final for both teams.
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