Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga will be retiring from ODI cricket after the first game of the three-match series against Bangladesh, skipper Dimuth Karunaratne confirmed on Monday.
“Lasith is going to play the first match. After that, he is retiring. That’s what he said to me. I don’t know what he said for the selectors but for me, he said he is playing only one match,” Karunaratne said in a joint media briefing ahead of the Sri Lanka-Bangladesh series.
Malinga is Sri Lanka’s third-highest wicket-taker in ODI cricket and has scalped 335 wickets in the format so far. Only Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas have more wickets than him in ODI cricket.
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The 35-year-old was the team’s highest wicket-taker in the recently concluded ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. He took 13 wickets in the tournament from seven innings.
The pacer had retired from Test cricket in 2011, but he has continued to play other formats since then.
Sri Lanka had finished at the sixth position in the World Cup as the side won three matches from nine games.
Sri Lanka’s squad for the three-match series against Bangladesh is as follows: Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Kusal Perera, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne, Shehan Jayasuriya, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella, Danushka Gunathilaka, Dasun Shanaka, Wanidu Hasaranga, Akila Dananjaya, Amila Aponso, Lakshan Sandakan, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Pradeep, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Thissara Perera, Isuru Udana, Lahiru Madushanka.
The three-match ODI series is slated to begin on July 26.
(With ANI inputs)