Sri Lanka’s Dimuth Karunaratne to Step Down as Test Captain After Ireland Series

Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne has announced that he will step down as Test captain after the Ireland series. Karunaratne's Sri Lanka recently went down in the two-match test series against New Zealand.  

Karunaratne has been in the role for fours and now wants a new captain to take over the mantle ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. Sri Lanka will lock horns with Ireland in a two-match test series starting from April 16. 

“I think it's best if a new captain does that whole cycle than for me to do half and hand over. I've talked to the selectors about this, but I haven't got a response yet. My preference is to hand over to a new leader after the next series,” the 35-year-old Lankan cricketer said.

Karunaratne was made Test captain in 2019 and under his captaincy the Lankan team registered a historic test series win in South Africa. The Lankan side became the first Asian team in history to defeat a South African team on their own soil. Karunaratne has captained the team in 26 test matches and has won 10 of them. 

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