Knee injury ends Kapugedera's Champions Trophy campaign

Britain Cricket - Australia v Sri Lanka - ICC Champions Trophy Warm Up Match - The Oval - 26/5/17 Sri Lanka's Chamara Kapugedera in action Action Images via Reuters / John Sibley/ Livepic/ Files

LONDON (Reuters) - Sri Lanka batsman Chamara Kapugedera has been ruled out of the ongoing Champions Trophy with a knee injury sustained during practice and will be replaced by Danushka Gunathilaka, the cricket board has said.

Kapugedera, who scored a duck in Sri Lanka's first Group B match against South Africa, was hit on the knee during Wednesday's fielding practice.

"... SLC Medical experts have recommended a supervised convalescence of two weeks," Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement.

Aggressive left-handed batsman Gunathilaka is set to open the innings against India later on Thursday, taking the spot of stand-in skipper Upul Tharanga who is serving a two-match suspension for slow over rate in the defeat by South Africa.

Regular skipper Angelo Mathews, who missed the match against South Africa with a calf injury, has said he would play the match against India even if just as a batsman.

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)