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Debasis Sen, Galle: Things just don’t seem to be going right for the Sri Lankan team as stand in captain Rangana Herath injured his left middle finger while fielding. The injury took place in the same finger on which he had sustained a fracture in 2014. According to initial reports, there is no fracture though.
Herath, leading Sri Lanka in this Test in the absence of Dinesh Chandimal, sustained the injury while fielding at short cover when he tried to stop a rasping drive by Virat Kohli in the 36th over of the Indian innings. He looked to be in severe pain as he left the field. With Asela Gunaratne already being ruled out to bat in the second innings, it will be more troubles if the injury to Herath is serious.
According to Asanka Gurusinha, the manager of the team, “We are icing it at the moment. We are not worried right now. We will know tomorrow morning the exact nature of the injury. It’s the same finger that he fractured three years ago. We took an x-ray today, but we can’t see a fracture. If the pain continues, then we will do a MRI scan. At this stage, we are icing it, and he is not going to go to Colombo or anything as of now. We will see if he can bowl tomorrow, we feel it is a bruise. “
The hosts have been dogged with injuries. Dinesh Chandimal was already ruled out of the first test match due to pneumonia. Now with injuries to Gunaratne and Herath, things does not look too rosy for the hosts as they have to face the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja to save the test match.
Meanwhile The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday appointed former First Class cricketer Mr. Sunil Subramanian as the Administrative Manager of Team India (Senior Men).
He will be contracted for a one-year term and join Team India in Sri Lanka before the start of second Test (August 3-7, 2017) in Colombo.
Mr. Subramanian has 285 wickets to his name from 74 matches in First Class cricket. He captained Tamil Nadu in Ranji Trophy and is a National Cricket Academy (NCA) certified coach. He also has a rich vein of experience when it comes to management and administrative capabilities having served both public and private sector organisations for over 16 years.