Just a day before kicking-off their Super Six campaign in the ongoing Men’s Cricket World Cup qualifiers against the Netherlands, 1996 champions Sri Lanka suffered a massive blow with pacer Dushmantha Chameera set to miss the remainder of tournament due to a right shoulder injury.
As per Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Chameera is still recovering from a right pectoral muscle injury he sustained on the right shoulder while practicing, ahead of the team’s first game of the group stage of the qualifiers against the UAE.
“Accordingly, the bowler will not be available for selections for the Super Six Round games as well. Chameera will return home and engage in a rehabilitation program at the High Performance Center at the RPICS,” said SLC in a statement.
The statement also mentioned that pacer Dilshan Madushanka will be included as a replacement.
In last year’s Asia Cup in the UAE, ankle and calf injuries had ruled out Chameera as well. Later, the pacer had recovered in time to play Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia however, he suffered another injury setback after pulling up while running in to bowl the last over of his spell in the group match against UAE at Geelong, and immediately went off the field.
He was then ruled out of the tournament due to a grade two tear in the calf of his landing foot and had then underwent an ankle surgery and was in a long rehabilitation, which forced him to miss limited-overs games against India and New Zealand.
Chameera the again made a comeback to international cricket in playing two out of three ODIs for Sri Lanka against Afghanistan at Hambantota earlier this month, picking figures of 2/18 and 4/63.
Coming to the ongoing World Cup qualifiers, each team will face the sides they did not meet in the group stage during the Super Six campaign and the top two will advance to the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, slated to be held in India from October 5 to November 19.