Angelo Perera joins Sri Lankan ODI squad in Nuwan Pradeep's absence
The Sri Lankan cricketer Nuwan Pradeep was out of the last two Test matches due to an injury. The Sri Lankan ODI squad will have to see him leave the team too and he will be replaced by the middle-order batsman Angelo Perera. The sad part for the team is that he was the only specialist seamer in the squad.
Pradeep showed good bowling skills while bowling at a good pace in the nets through the back end of the Test series. He was ready to bowl in the opening ODI unless his injury worsened just before the toss, but that is what has happened.
The specialist seamer of the Sri Lankan team had largely played only Test matches until the big names of the team like Lasith Malinga, Dushmantha Chameera and Dhammika Prasad were ruled out of the Sri Lankan ODI Squad.
The 29-year-old made his test debut against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi on October 2011, whereas he made his ODI debut against India at Colombo on 31st July 2012. In his last ODI match against England at the grounds of Cardiff, Pradeep bowled for 8 overs and took one wicket for the team. Even in the last test match against Australia at Pallekele, the pacer was not in bad form.
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Soon after the worsening of his injury, Perera was called in to replace Pradeep in the team. The middle-order batsman made his way into his national team after showing a decent performance in England for the Sri Lanka A team. In the four list matches against England Lions and Pakistan A, his scores were 35, 30 not out, 35 and 69.
Perera, who is known for his aggressive batting skills, has been one of the more consistent performers in domestic cricket over the past few years where he has maintained an average of 36.21 and batting strike rate of 93 across 78 List A innings.
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The right-handed aggressive batsman, who made his First-class cricket debut in 2008, had hit 450 first class runs in Premier League Tournament this year with an average of 40.90.
Sri Lankan seamers are not expected to play a major role in the ODI series.