IND vs SL: Suranga Lakmal Explains The Reason For Taking Early Retirement From International Career

Sri Lanka pacer Suranga Lakmal said that his decision to retire from international cricket was to allow the opportunity for the youngsters in his country. Last month, Lakmal announced that he would retire from international cricket at the conclusion of Sri Lanka’s tour of India 2022.

Lakmal has played 69 Tests, 86 ODIs and 11 T20 International matches in his international career of more than 12 years since making his ODI debut against India in Nagpur in 2009. The Jaffna Kings pacer has accounted for 287 wickets across all formats of the game on the international stage.

This is the best time to take my leave from Sri Lanka cricket: Suranga Lakmal

The 35-year-old said that he could have played for a couple of more years for the Sri Lanka national team but that would have denied the opportunity to young players to groom themselves for their careers.

“More than thinking about my performance, I thought about what I can do for my team. I’ve played for 13 years, and now I’m 35.

“Rather than sticking around for a couple more years, I thought I’d give my place to someone younger. This is the best time to take my leave from Sri Lanka cricket,” Lakmal told ESPNcricinfo.

“We’re all playing for this (World) Test Championship and a lot of service is expected of me there, but a lot of the Tests we will play in the rest of the year are in Sri Lanka. We all know that we prepare spinning pitches there. Even if there are just one or two-seamers playing, you have the opportunity to groom someone new,” he added.

Suranga Lakmal talks about the biggest moments of his career

Lakmal led Sri Lanka in five Test matches in the year 2018, he won three matches and lost the remaining two. Lakmal mentioned the Pink-Ball Day-Night Test match in Bridgetown in 2018, which Sri Lanka won by four wickets, as the best match of his career.

“Probably my biggest success was winning the pink-ball Test in Barbados under my captaincy. That was the first time an Asian team had won there. Also whitewashing Australia at home in 2016. Winning in South Africa as the first Asian team to do that was great as well,” Lakmal said.

Lakmal picked a couple of wickets in the first Test match against India in Mohali even though Sri Lanka lost by an innings and 222 runs. The second Test is a Pink-Ball game at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

Also Read: IND vs SL 2022: We’re Working Hard To Give Suranga Lakmal A Great Farewell – Dimuth Karunaratne