Dickwella’s injury may take a few weeks to heal

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Sri Lanka will be without wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella for the rest of the ongoing ODI series against Bangladesh as he was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his left hand.

Dickwella hurt himself while training on Sunday and while his injury was initially thought to be a minor one, the 23-year-old found it difficult to grip a bat on Monday. As a result, he underwent scans, which confirmed the fracture.

Sri Lanka team manager Asanka Gurusinha revealed that Dickwella’s injury is “minor” and added that it could take “a couple of weeks” to fully heal.

Dickwella, who missed the first ODI due to a one-match suspension he picked up in Australia earlier this year, has now been listed as doubtful for the Twenty20 series that follows.

With Dickwella out, Sri Lanka have brought in off-spinner Dilruwan Perera as his replacement. But, in addition to calling up Perera, Sri Lanka have also drafted pace bowlers Nuwan Kulasekara and Nuwan Pradeep into the squad.

Bangladesh hold a 1-0 lead going into the second ODI as they beat Sri Lanka by 90 runs in the first ODI in Dambulla on Saturday.