Hampshire Sings Dimuth Karunaratne For First Half Of 2019 Season

English county club Hampshire have roped in Sri Lanka opener Dimuth Karunaratne for the first half of the 2019 season as their overseas player. Karunaratne will feature in both the County Championship and the One-Day competition during his stay. Karunaratne recently became the first Asia captain to win a Test series in South Africa after guiding Sri Lanka to a historic 2-0 win over the Proteas.

In an otherwise dismal last one year or so for Sri Lankan cricket, Karunaratne has been one of their biggest positives. The opening batsman has scored heavily in all the parts of the world to underline his importance as one of the best players in the world right now.  No opener in Test cricket has scored more runs than Karunaratne since the start of 2017. In 60 Test matches, the Sri Lankan left-hander has scored more than 4000 runs including eight hundreds.

Despite being an inconsistent performer in the first few years of his career, Karunaratne has matured into a more reliably run-producer in the last couple of years. In 2017, he scored over 1,000 runs including centuries against Bangladesh and India as well as the monumental 196-run against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi. Last year, he was the sixth highest run-scorer in Tests, scoring 743 runs with the help of 1 century and seven fifties.

Expressing his delight over getting the contract, Karunaratne said:

“It has always been my dream to play in the County Championship and I couldn’t be happier for it to be at a County like Hampshire. “I am looking forward to continue building on the success from 2018 by playing an important role in Hampshire’s future.”

The left-arm batsman, meanwhile, will have chance to showcase his white-ball skills too. Despite being a settled name in the Test team, Karunaratne has played just 17 ODIs so far, averaging a meagre 15. In fact, his last ODI appearance came almost four years ago.

Giles White, Director of Cricket at the club, welcomed the Sri Lanka star:

“We’re delighted to have Dimuth with us for the first half of the season and we’re excited about what he brings to the group, both on and off the pitch,” White said. “He’s a high-class player and in recent months we’ve seen his quality, not only as an opening batsman at the top of the order, but also as a leader as part of Sri Lanka’s recent historic series win in South Africa. We’re really looking forward to welcoming Dimuth to the Club.”