By Ravi - Feb 04, 2025 04:55 PM
Former Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne has announced his retirement from Test cricket. Karunaratne scored 7 and 0 runs in the first Test of the recently played series against Australia. Now he has decided that the 100th Test match will be the last Test match of his career.
| Formate | Match | Inn | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 100 | 200 | 50 | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 99 | 189 | 7172 | 244 | 39.41 | 51.55 | 16 | 1 | 39 | 760 | 12 |
| ODI | 50 | 46 | 1316 | 103 | 31.33 | 79.52 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 131 | 1 |
Karunaratne will retire as Sri Lanka's fourth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket. So far he has scored 7,172 runs in 99 Tests, including 16 centuries and 39 fifties, at an average of 39.40.
His recent decline in form may be one of the reasons behind his retirement. His last Test century was against Ireland in April 2023. In the last seven innings, he has not been able to cross the 50-run mark in Test cricket. His last half-century was against New Zealand in Galle. Against South Africa, he scored only 27 runs, which was the total score in two Tests.
Dimuth Karunaratne now plans to settle in Australia with his family. He made his first-class cricket debut for Sinhalese Sports Club in 2008. He said that I have some personal plans of my own. I have decided to retire after talking to senior players like Angie (Angelo Mathews) and Chandy (Dinesh Chandimal).
He said that instead of all three of us retiring at the same time, it would be better for us to retire one by one. I thought I would retire earlier because I know I will not be able to reach my next target of 10,000 runs in Tests given the fewer number of Test matches being played.
The second Test match of the Warne-Muralidaran Trophy 2025 will begin on February 6. It will be the last Test of the current World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle. Sri Lanka are currently fifth in the WTC table. They will remain in fifth place regardless of the result of the second Test.
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