Sri Lanka have ended the experiment with Thisara Perera as their limited-overs captain as they now moot to name either former captain Angelo Mathews or Test skipper Perera was appointed Sri Lanka's T20I captain for the bilateral series against Pakistan in October after several players pulled out expressing their reluctance to travel to Lahore. He was handed the ODI captaincy as well after Upul Tharanga was sacked ahead of the tour of India.
However, since taking over as Head Coach, Chandika Hathurusingha had insisted on working with a permanent captain till the World Cup.
Mathews stepped down as captain in July last year after Sri Lanka suffered a humiliating ODI series defeat to Zimbabwe. However, since the arrival of Hathurusingha, Mathews is believed to have shown some interest in taking over the reins again. There, however, remain question marks about his fitness. The 30-year-old returned early from the tour of South Africa last year with a hamstring injury that also kept him out of the subsequent tour of Australia and the home series against Bangladesh.
Mathews hurt his hamstring again during the second T20I against India in Indore, before being ruled out of the final T20I in Mumbai. His fitness is due to be assessed on Monday (January 8) in Colombo.
Chandimal, Sri Lanka's Test captain, has had a prolific 2017 in the longer format of the game, scoring over 1000 runs in the calendar year, but has struggled in ODIs since and was surprisingly axed for the home series against Zimbabwe. The 28-year-old was drafted into the initial pool of 23 players named for the tri-nation series in Bangladesh, also involving Zimbabwe.
Last week, in an interview with Cricbuzz, Hathurusingha said that he was confident of bringing the best out of Chandimal, having worked with him earlier in the Sri Lanka 'A' team.
Sri Lanka's selectors will meet on Tuesday (January 9) to name the captain as well as the 15-member squad for the tour of Bangladesh. Sri Lanka will also play two Tests and two T20Is in Bangladesh after the tri-nation series.
In 2017, Sri Lanka played 29 ODIs, winning five and losing 23 with one game ending without a result. There were three 5-0 whitewashes too, handed by South Africa, India and Pakistan.
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