Cricket authorities have decided to remove Dasun Shanaka from the captaincy of the ODI team, reliable sources said.
After discussing it at length yesterday (19), they were to summon Shanaka to Sri Lanka Cricket this morning to inform him of their decision.
His successor is to be Kusal Mendis.
Shanaka’s captaincy came into question following the team’s pathetic display in the Asia Cup final against India.
Further, he has of late been unable to contribute much for the team with either the bat or the ball.
However, he has won 23 games out of the 39 ODIs he captained, which is a success rate of 58.97 per cent.
His predecessors had the success rates of 46.11 pc for both Arjuna Ranatunga and Sanath Jayasuriya, 55.38 pc for Mahela Jayawardena, 46.23 pc for Angelo Mathews, 42.31 pc for Tilakaratne Dilshan. At 60 pc, only Kumar Sangakkara had a higher success rate than Shanaka.
After a wave of one of the worst defeats for Sri Lanka, he took up the responsibility of the team in 2021 and achieved many a feat.
They include the highest continuous ODI wins, a home series win against Australia after 30 years and victories in three consecutive ODI series after eight years.
Shanaka also led an inexperienced T20I team to a 3-0 victory against top-ranked Pakistan on their home soil, won Asia Cup after eight years, led Sri Lanka to direct qualification for the T20I World Cup after 2016 and won the highest T20Is for the country.
Although stripped of captaincy, he is likely to feature in the World Cup squad as an all-rounder.
