Dinesh Chandimal – The Captain who thrives in the hour of need
Dinesh Chandimal has been a consistent run scorer over the last few years especially in Test cricket. After a disastrous series against Australia where Sri Lanka went on to lose the series (2-0) the selectors abruptly decided to transfer the captaincy of the Test team to Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal was asked to play domestic cricket to regain his confidence.
Since then he has scored heaps of runs for Nondescripts and he has shown his capability to score runs on a consistent basis.
Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne were groomed to be the replacements for the retiring legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardane.
In 2014 Chandimal led Sri Lanka in the ICC World T20 in Bangladesh but had to step down halfway through the tournament when he was suspended due to slow overate offences. He was replaced by Lasith Malinga who led the Sri Lankan lions to win the tournament.
When Angelo Mathews was appointed as the captain of the National Team in 2013, there were a lot of expectations that the youngsters will take the responsibility of taking Sri Lanka cricket forward as the senior players were expected to retire after the 2015 World cup.
Ever since the 2015 World Cup Sri Lanka cricket has been in a crisis situation where the team has been lacking a proper game plan and that has led to conflicts on and off the field.
It’s been around three years since the two legends retired and unfortunately they haven’t found a group of players that can take the responsibility of building a team that can win matches consistently.
When Angelo Mathews decided to give up the captaincy across all formats in 2017, Chandimal was given the responsibility of leading the Test team. During this period Sri Lanka was able to obtain a historic series win against Pakistan. It was the first time that a touring team had won a Test series in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
But unfortunately he made the headlines for all the wrong reasons during the National team’s tour of the Caribbean. In St Lucia he was charged with ball tampering allegations as a result of which he was suspended from international cricket. Despite the off field controversy Sri Lanka went on to level the series (1-1).
His captaincy came under scrutiny when the team toured New Zealand and Australia. The Selectors also had problems regarding his role as a leader.
Meanwhile Chandika Hathurusingha said that he was shocked when he found that Chandimal was not included in the Test Squad that is playing against South Africa. He is also left out of the ODI squad.
The question remains whether he would make his way to the World Cup squad as he did not have a permanent position in the team. Due to all these reasons, chances of returning to the One Day setup remains doubtful.
For the time being, let’s wait and see what the future holds for Chandimal and let’s hope that he will be able to return to the National team in the near future.