Rangana Herath to lead Sri Lanka in Zimbabwe

Veteran Sri Lankan off-spinner Rangana Herath is set to add another feather to his cap in an illustrious Test career when he will take the field in Harare on 29th October. Herath has been named stand-in captain for the two-match Test series after Angelo Mathews aggravated a calf injury during training.

Upul Tharanga has been roped in as his replacement for the series. This announcement comes after regular vice-captain Dinesh Chandimal was unfit for the tour due to an impending surgery on his thumb. Herath is easily the most experienced member of the squad now, one of the reasons for him being chosen as a worthy candidate.

He becomes the 13th captain to lead Sri Lanka, and only the second bowler, after Somachandra De Silva. He makes his captaincy debut aged 38, making him one of the oldest debutants, and this announcement comes just 6 months after he claimed that “300 wickets would be his final goal”. The left-arm spinner has been one of the most successful of his kind in Test cricket, with 332 scalps at a highly impressive average of 28 with the best figures for a Sri Lankan in tests ever of 9-127.

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Leading Sri Lanka against a weak Zimbabwe side will be a different challenge altogether, with plenty of new and young faces in the squad, including teenage sensation Lahiru Kamara, Lahiru Gamage, Asela Gunaratne and Kasun Madhushanka.He has not led Sri Lanka in any format in his long 17-year career, so it will be interesting to see how he adapts to this new responsibility.

Sri Lanka starts the first of the two tests in Harare, and then will feature in a trip series featuring West Indies in a one month trip that concluded with the trip series final on 27th November in Bulawayo. All but one of their matches will be played at Harare Sports Club.