Tillakaratne Dilshan unavailable for England tour due to personal reasons

Sri Lankan batting mainstay Tillakaratne Dilshan has decided to skip the upcoming limited overs leg of the ongoing tour of the British Isles due to personal issues.

After the completion of the ongoing Test series against England, Sri Lanka will fly to Dublin to play two One-Day Internationals against Ireland on 16th and 18th June.

Sri Lanka will then return to the United Kingdom to play a five-match ODI series against England between 21st June and 2nd July, before signing off the tour with a Twenty20 International against the hosts on 5th July.

Dilshan’s loss will be significant for Sri Lanka as he is the senior most batsman in the side and has been a key pillar of their batting line-up in the limited overs formats in recent years.

Since 2009, only Kumar Sangakkara has scored more runs (7,275) than Dilshan, who has notched up 7,222 runs in 175 ODIs at an average of 46.29 including 21 centuries and 33 fifties.

Kusal Perera is expected to return as the opening batsman for the limited overs fixtures but Sri Lanka will now have to pick an opening partner for the 25-year-old.

© Cricket World 2016