Dinesh Chandimal is announced as Sri Lanka captain

Dinesh Chandimal was named the captain of the Sri Lankan test side, while Upul Tharanga will lead the ODI and T20 side.

The decision was made a day after Angelo Mathews gave up his captaincy across all formats.

At the press conference to declare the new captains, Mathews, who had described the shock series defeat to Zimbabwe as one of the lowest points of his career said that: “Yes, there have been significant poor performances, and I’m humble enough to accept it.

“In the past also there were instances where I wanted to step down but I didn’t want to let the team down at that time, mainly because there were no replacements. The team’s interests supersede the individuals.

“Now there are candidates to take over, and I’m sure they will be more successful than me. I also wanted to give my successor time to build a team for the 2019 World Cup.”

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Chandimal said he was thankful to Mathews for the job he has done for Sri Lanka and hoped that he will keep on playing a vital role in the future as a senior player.

“Captaincy is not an easy job. He’s a match-winner for us, and I have huge hopes that he will continue to be one in the coming years as well,” Chandimal said.

Chandimal and Tharanga are not entirely new to the job of leading the side. Chandimal has led the team in the shortest format before, while Tharanga was the captain of the ODI team in Mathews’ absence.

But they do not have much time to adjust to the permanent roles as skippers as the series against India starts from July 26.

Sri Lanka are to play a one-off Test against Zimbabwe from Friday, July 14 which will be Chandimal’s first match as Test captain.