I hope Sri Lanka include Kusal Perera in the Test squad: Kumar Sangakkara

Former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara believes that opening batsman Kusal Perera who has cleared off the doping charges by the ICC should make a comeback into the national team in the upcoming Test series against England.

Sangakkara said, “Before this tour, he (Perera) would have been picked in the World T20 squad, opening with (Tillakaratne) Dilshan, which would have been a huge advantage,”

“I’m extremely confused as to what has happened. The labs in Qatar came back with an adverse finding in one of his urine samples and they named him with the steroid that was found. Suddenly, over the last two days, they have withdrawn that and said ‘we might have made a mistake’. The poor boy has been out for quite a long time. He is very young, 25, one of the most exciting talents we have,” Sangakkara said while speaking at an event in London.

When asked about his opinion on including Kusal Perera in the Sri Lankan squad ahead of the Test series against England, Sangakkara said: “I hope they do, because I think when you have gone through something like that, the best thing you can do is to be allowed to play cricket again.”

ICC suspended Perera on December 7, 2015, and when a cricketer is suspended, he can’t attend the training with the rest of the teammates and thus Perera has not been able to maintain his fitness levels due to his provisional suspension.

“The sad fact is that when you are provisionally banned, you can’t even train or use the facilities that international teams use. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka have lost a remarkable player for quite a long time now and hopefully, he will have a very successful career from here on in,” Sangakkara concluded.

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