Sri Lanka's Dilruwan Perera Retires From International Cricket

Published - 26 Jan 2022, 03:43 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:03 AM

Sri Lanka's Dilruwan Perera celebrates taking the wicket of South Africa's Faf du Plessis during the second day of their second test cricket match in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

In what came as a surprise, Sri Lanka’s Dilruwan Perera announced his retirement from international cricket on January 26, 2022, with immediate effect. The bowling all-rounder represented the country in 43 Tests, 13 ODIs, and three T20Is across 14 years since making his debut in 2007. The off-spinner collected 177 wickets and 1456 runs across formats.

The 39-year-old spinner communicated his decision via email to the CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket, Ashley de Silva, saying the time was right for him to call it to quit. He, however, also confirmed that he will continue playing domestic cricket for a while longer.

“Sri Lanka Cricket has been a source of great inspiration and support throughout my time and I remain grateful to you, the executive committee, and my coaches past and present. I will continue to play domestic cricket for a while longer but for now I think the time is right to call it curtains on my international cricket journey… I’ve had the privilege and honor of playing with some of the best in the game, I leave with fond memories and a heart full of joy,” Dilruwan Perera said in his statement to the Sri Lanka Board.

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In ODIs, Perera averaged 31.46 and went on to pick 13 wickets from as many games while the three T20Is brought in three wickets. He, however, didn’t feature in any of the limited-overs sides since 2018 with his last T20I appearance coming in 2011.

Perera’s last outing for Sri Lanka was against England in January last year in Galle where he picked up a wicket and scored 71 runs. In December 2017, he broke Muralitharan’s record to become the fastest player in his country and seventh overall to 100 Test wickets.

At the same time, Dilruwan’s performance with the bat has also been excellent, Dilruwan has 7 half-centuries to his name in Test cricket, and his highest personal score is 95.