Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka was ruled out of the ICC World Cup 2023 on Saturday due to injury and was replaced by Chamika Karunaratne, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said.

Dasun Shanaka suffered a right thigh muscle injury during Sri Lanka’s defeat to Pakistan on Tuesday and it was revealed that he will stay out of action for a minimum of three weeks.

“The injury needs three weeks to recover,” the ICC said in a statement.

Allrounder Chamika Karunaratne, who was selected as a travelling reserve, was approved by the ICC Event Technical Committee to replace Dasun Shanaka in the squad. Karunaratne has played 23 ODIs for Sri Lanka and has picked 24 wickets at 28.83.

Meanwhile, vice-captain Kusal Mendis will lead the side in Shanaka’s absence.

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Sri Lanka have lost both their opening games at the World Cup and will face fellow winless side Australia in Lucknow on Monday.

Sri Lanka faced a heavy six-wicket defeat against Pakistan after scoring a mammoth 344 on Tuesday.

However, Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Rizwan struck gutsy centuries to power Pakistan to pull off the highest World Cup run-chase with 10 balls to spare.

Prior to that, a combined bowling effort after a batting onslaught propelled South Africa to hand a 102-run thrashing to Sri Lanka in their ICC World Cup 2023 opener.

Sri Lanka updated squad for ICC World Cup 2023

Kusal Mendis (c), Kusal Perera, Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dushan Hemantha, Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana, Lahiru Kumara, Dilshan Madushanka, Chamika Karunaratne

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