Dhananjaya de Silva Replaces Dimuth Karunaratne As Sri Lanka's Test Captain

Sri Lanka men's cricket team's selection panel's chief Upul Tharanga has confirmed Dhananjaya de Silva as the Test captain, replacing opening batter Dimuth Karunaratne. As a result, the spin-bowling all-rounder will become the 18th player from the Island nation to lead them in Test cricket and is the 3rd captaincy change.

Karunaratne oversaw the Sri Lankan Test team for 30 Tests, winning and losing 12 each. Sri Lanka's most notable series win under him was in South Africa in 2019, becoming the first Asian country to emerge victorious in the rainbow nation. The left-hander also took charge during a testing time in Sri Lankan cricket and also averaged 49.86 with the bat as captain.

Meanwhile, Dhananjaya de Silva has been a mainstay of the side too in the past few years across formats. Having featured in 51 Tests, de Silva has mustered 10 centuries and 13 fifties. However, he was left out of the recent ODI squad announced to face Zimbabwe.

Dhananjaya de Silva to start his Test captaincy stint against Afghanistan:

Meanwhile, De Silva will start his Test captaincy stint against Afghanistan in a one-off Test from February 6th-10th. Sri Lanka played their most recent red-ball game against Pakistan in a two-Test series, but lost heavily.

SLC have also replaced Dasun Shanaka as the white-ball skipper, with Kusal Mendis succeeding him in ODIs and Wanindu Hasaranga taking charge in T20Is.