 Sri Lanka has been dealt a body blow when it was announced that their star spinner,
Muthiah Muralitharan has failed to recover from his finger injury and will
miss the rest of the ODI series against India. He will be flying back to have
his finger examined and reassessed by doctors and if need be surgery will be done.
Muralitharan had injured his finger in the test match series against India
and had missed out playing in the T20Is as well. He was expected to be fit for
the ODIs, but had not featured in the first ODI that Sri Lanka went on
to lose by three runs. Without any sufficient recovery made, the ace bowler
has now been advised to go back home and rest the finger to not aggravate it
further.
Sri Lanka team manager, Brendon Kuruppu said that it was no point aggravating
the injury further. He said, "We have decided to rest Murali from the one-day
series to allow him to recover fully from the finger injury and to be available
for future tournaments."
Muralitharan had had an awful test series against the Indians and picked up
nine wickets in the three games at an average of 65 and an economy rate of almost
four runs per over. Muralitharan will be replaced by two spin bowlers in the
squad - Muthumudalige Pushpakumara and Suraj Randiv. Pushpakumara had
been a part of the T20I squad, and had featured in one T20I before being rested
for the second one. Randiv has yet to play an international match, but has been
a part of the Lankan squad for some time.
However, this was not the entire piece of bad news for the touring Lankans.
They have also lost their pace bowler, Dilhara Fernando, also thanks
to a finger injury that was caused during the first ODI. He had tried to hold
a return catch from MS Dhoni but could not do so and the ball had hit the fingers
and gone off to the bowling. He had struggled to bowl after that but completed
his spell of bowling, eventually also picking up the wicket of Dhoni with a
slower ball. Kuruppu said, "Fernando hurt his finger during that [the Rajkot]
match. His replacement will be announced shortly."
Lasith Malinga, who has been a part of the squad has already missed out on
the first ODI thanks to an injury and there is no update on whether he will
be fit for the second match.
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