Dimuth Karunaratne decides to call it a day after completing the 100th test match

Dimuth Karunaratne decides to call it a day after completing the 100th test match

Former Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne announced his retirement from international cricket following the second Test match against Australia in Galle. Speaking on his retirement, Karunaratne said, “After the first Test against Australia ended, I told Sri Lanka Cricket that the next Test would be my last

“It was the right time to go, considering there are three or four younger players who could come in for the next WTC cycle. Plus, this match was in Galle, where I made my debut, so it will be nice to finish things there,” Karunaratne said.

The 36-year-old steps away from the game after a prolific career, though runs dried up of late with only 182 runs coming in his last seven Test matches, with a solitary half-century coming in September 2024 against New Zealand.

This match will also mark his 100th Test appearance, a significant milestone in any Test cricketer’s career, following in the footsteps of Sanath Jayasuriya, Muthiah Muralidaran, Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews.

“Playing 100 Tests is a tough thing to accomplish, especially when you’re an opening batter and you’re doing the dirty work for the team,” said Karunaratne. The left-hand batter also opened up on one of his biggest regrets in his career – never appearing in a World Test Championship Final.

“I’d also have loved to make it to a World Test Championship final and experience that feeling of being in a final. We were close twice, but it never happened.”

Karunaratne’s highest Test score of 244 came against Bangladesh in 2021. He also holds the rare distinction of registering both a duck and a century in the same Test match.

As Sri Lanka’s Test captain from 2019 to 2024, Karunaratne led the team in 30 matches. His stellar performances earned him a nomination for the ICC Test Player of the Year Award in 2021.

That year, he was also named in the ICC World Test XI after finishing as the third-highest run-scorer in the format, amassing 902 runs at an impressive average of 69.38, including four centuries.

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