Dimuth Karunaratne has offered to step down from Sri Lanka Test captaincy role ahead of next World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. Karunaratne expressed that he is willing to let go of the role after the completion of two-Test series against Ireland at home next month. The opener revealed that he has already talked to the selectors about his but is yet to get a response.
Karunaratne made the statement after the clean sweep in two-Test series against New Zealand. After a nerve-wracking Christchurch Test where hosts won off the last ball, Sri Lanka suffered a massive defeat by an innings and 58 runs in Wellington Test.
"I've talked with the selectors about stepping down as captain after the Ireland series. In the next WTC cycle, you've got to do two years," Karunaratne said.
"I think it's best if a new captain does that whole cycle than for me to do half and hand over. I've talked to the selectors about this, but I haven't got a response yet. My preference is to hand over to a new leader after the next series."
Karunaratne made his Test captaincy debut in 2019. Under his leadership, Sri Lanka have won 10 Tests out of 26, lost 10 whereas six have ended in a draw. He has the best win percentage of 38.46 in Tests as captain since Mahela Jaywardene who had 18 wins from 38 Tests.
In the current WTC 2021-23 cycle, Sri Lanka won five Tests, lost six and one ended in a draw. Sri Lanka finished fifth on the points table with a win percentage of 44.44.
Karunratne finished the two-Test series as Sri Lanka's highest run-getter. The left-handed batter scored 207 runs from four innings at an average of 51.75 including three half-centuries. While he failed to make a mark while following on in Wellington Test, he scored 89 when the visitors got all out for 164. However, he regretted that he wasn’t able to convert the starts into big scores.
"After eight months, although I made some runs here, I could have done more, I think. Twice, I think I could have turned half-centuries into hundreds, and I wasted them," the 34-year-old added.
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