Scary scenes occured at Galle on the first day of the opening Test between Sri Lanka and West Indies, when a pull shot from Dimuth Karunaratne struck Jeremy Solozano on the front of his helmet. The West Indies debutant was stretchered off the field and transferred to a hospital in an ambulance for scans.
The incident took place on the fourth ball of the 24th over just before the lunch break, when Karunaratne pulled a short delivery by Roston Chase.
The ball struck Solozano, who was fielding at short leg, on the front of his helmet near the forehead. He was transferred to a hospital in Colombo, more than an hour away by road. Later in the evening, Cricket West Indies gave an update on the injury via a tweet.
Solozano had hardly any time to react to the well-timed pull. He lay still on the ground for several minutes but appeared conscious as the medical team attended him and the players from both the sides surrounded him. Solozano was seen talking before his forehead was wrapped with a towel.
The concerned head coach, Phil Simmons, came down the stairs from the dressing room and stood near the boundary line before Solozano was taken off the field into an ambulance near the boundary.
The 26-year-old left-handed batter from Trinidad was handed his Test cap by Simmons and was set to open the innings. Solozano has played 40 First-Class matches, scoring nearly 1700 runs at an average of over 23, including two centuries. He had scored 74 runs off 216 balls in the second intra-squad match ahead of the Sri Lankan tour.
Shai Hope has been added to the West Indies playing XI as a concussion substitute. Solozano will return to the team hotel and undergo further protocols.
Sri Lanka were 341 for 6 at Lunch on day two of the Galle Test on the back of Karunaratne’s century and fifties from Pathum Nissanka and Dhanajaya de Silva.
