Sri Lanka's Nuwan Pradeep Ruled Out Of World Cup

Sri Lanka have suffered a big blow ahead of their remaining league games with the pace bowler Nuwan Pradeep being ruled out of the remainder of the competition. Pradeep was affected with Chickenpox and will now return home as he looks to recover. Kasun Rajitha has replaced Nuwan Pradeep in the Sri Lanka squad.

The World Cup Event Technical Committee (ETC) has approved the addition of Rajitha in the side in place of Nuwan Pradeep. The pace bowler last played in the World Cup during the 20-run over England in Leeds. He then missed the game against South Africa. Prior to that, Pradeep had also missed the game against Bangladesh, which was abandoned due to rain. He suffered a finger dislocation while bowling in the nets.

Pradeep thus exits the World Cup after playing only three matches in which he picked up five wickets, including the four-wicket haul against Afghanistan. Talking about Rajitha, he last featured in an international game during Sri Lanka’s series against South Africa earlier this year. Overall, he has played six ODIs thus far, picking up a total of five wickets.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, are all but out of the World Cup after losing to South Africa on Friday. The Islanders still have a mathematical chance of progressing ahead but the road is very tough. With just 7 points from six games, they are currently seventh in the points table. They can finish with a maximum of ten points but will need the other results to go their way to make it to the next stage.

But for finishing the league stage with ten points, Sri Lanka need to beat formidable India and West Indies. They will take on West Indies (July 1) and India (July 6) respectively in their last two games.