Tag INDinSL2012

Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara’s fielding antics have cost him and his team dearly. The pace-bowler was ruled out of the remaining four ODIs against visitors India after he suffered a groin injury while trying to catch a ball Indian opener Virender Sehwag had hit towards mid-off.

The Lankans were off to a good start, with Kulasekara himself getting Gautam Gambhir’s wicket early on in the innings. But in the 11th over, he dove to catch Sehwag’s ball and landed awkwardly. The jump didn’t help the team much as Sehwag, who was on 24 at that time wasn’t given out because video replays didn’t show Kulasekara catching the ball cleanly. The Lankan bowler didn’t bowl after the incident, stopping at just the five he had bowled earlier. Sehwag on the other hand, went on to score 96 runs, supporting India’s victory in the first ODI of the series as well as India’s opening match of the season.

Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene spoke to media regarding Kulasekara after the match was over and was quoted saying: “Nuwan is out of the series. He has got a groin injury. We cannot get a scan here. Once we get back to Colombo, we will get a scan done and see the extent of the injury and how long he will have to be out.”

Things would have gone a whole lot differently if Kulasekara had made that catch and remained unscathed, but it was not to be. His absence is sure to haunt the Lankans in the remainder of the series. Talks of a replacement are already underway and the player will have to rush onto the scene as the next ODI between the neighbors is on the 24th of this month.

Jayawardene also spoke the replacement and was quoted saying: “We will talk to the selectors. The A team guys probably would have arrived today in Sri Lanka. There was a selector on that tour, so we will get some advice from him, who was in good form and try and come up with a replacement.”