World Cup 2019: Sri Lanka announce their 15-man squad for the tournament

Sri Lanka Cricket on Thursday, 18 April, announced their 15-member squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup scheduled to be played in England and Wales.

Hyderabad: Sri Lanka Cricket on Thursday announced their 15-man squad for the upcoming World Cup, and Test skipper Dimuth Karunaratne was brought in to lead the side, which also includes veteran pacer Lasith Malinga.

Also, Kusal Perera, who missed the South Africa ODIs, is back in the team for the prestigious tournament.

Lahiru Thirimanne, spin-bowling all-rounders Milinda Siriwardana and Jeevan Mendis, as well as Jeffrey Vandersay, have made it to the squad too, All the aforementioned players have not played an ODI since at least 2017.

Surprisingly, there are some big names who missed the World Cup Bus as Niroshan Dickwella, Akila Dananjaya, Danushka Gunathilaka and Upul Tharanga were left out of the squad and even former captain Dinesh Chandimal was ignored by the selectors.

Sri Lanka squad for 2019 WC

Interestingly, Sri Lanka have not won a single ODI in 2019, having lost three games in New Zealand and five in South Africa.

Meanwhile, Malinga has been snubbed as skipper of the team and is replaced by Karunaratne, who last played an ODI in 2015 World Cup.

Explaining Karunaratne's appointment as the captain, the Chairman of selectors Asantha de Mel said they wanted “somebody who can get the team together” at the event in England and Wales.

On the sacking of Malinga, de Mel said: “He was OK as captain but he does not get along well with some of the senior players.”

Sri Lanka has also suffered a string of defeats under Malinga's leadership and it would be interesting to see whether he plays the World Cup despite having been named in the squad as recent media reports suggested that the 35-year-old pacer has made up his mind on retiring from the game after being removed as the captain.

Here's Sri Lanka's 15-man squad:

• Dimuth Karunaratne (Captain)
• Angelo Mathews
• Lasith Malinga
• Kusal Janith Perera
• Lahiru Thirimanne
• Avishka Fernando
• Kusal Mendis
• Dhananjaya de Silva
• Jeffrey Vandersay
• Thisara Perera
• Isuru Udana
• Suranga Lakmal
• Nuwan Pradeep
• Jeevan Mendis
• Milinda Siriwardhane

The forthcoming World Cup will start on May 30 and Sri Lanka will kickstart their campaign against New Zealand on June 1.