Right-arm quick Nuwan Pradeep has made his return to the national side for Sri Lanka’s forthcoming white-ball trip to the UK, where they’ll take on England in three T20Is and three ODIs.
Pradeep, known for his ability to get a spongy bounce out of any track, wasn’t included for the series against Bangladesh recently but has made his comeback to an otherwise inexperienced Sri Lanka limited-overs squad.
All players, barring Ashen Bandara, have been retained from the Bangladesh ODIs in Dhaka, with a host of new faces also included in the 24-man travelling contingent for the England series. Kusal Perera will be captaining the side in both the ODIs and T20Is.
Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne remain sidelined for the time, as selectors and the management look to build the team for the future.
A cloud of uncertainty was hovering over the England series until earlier this week. Sri Lanka players publicly expressed their displeasure about the central contracts offered to them by SLC and refused to sign the tour contracts offered temporarily. The issue delayed the announcement of the squad.
But with the matter put to rest by both the players and the board for now, the selected contingent is expected to fly England on Wednesday morning.
The series kickstarts on June 23 with the opening T20I, followed by the second and the third on June 24th and 26th, respectively. The ODIs, included in both teams’ ICC Super League campaign, will be played on June 29, July 1 and 4, respectively. The Lankans will face Kent and Sussex in singular warm-up matches for either format before the series.
