Harare, Jun 29 (IANS): A day before starting their Super Six campaign in the Men's Cricket World Cup qualifiers against the Netherlands, 1996 champions Sri Lanka suffered a blow with pacer Dushmantha Chameera set to miss the rest of tournament due to a right shoulder injury.
As per Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), Chameera is still recovering from a right pectoral muscle injury he sustained on the right shoulder while practicing, ahead of the team's first game of the group stage of the qualifiers against the UAE.
"Accordingly, the bowler will not be available for selections for the Super Six Round games as well. Chameera will return home and engage in a rehabilitation program at the High Performance Center at the RPICS," said SLC in a statement.
The statement also mentioned that pacer Dilshan Madushanka will be included in the Sri Lanka squad as a replacement for Chameera, who has been battling injury issues for a long time.
Ankle and calf injuries also ruled Chameera out of Sri Lanka's triumph in the Asia Cup last year in the UAE. Though he recovered in time to play Men's T20 World Cup in Australia, the pacer suffered another injury setback after pulling up while running in to bowl the last over of his spell in the group match against UAE at Geelong, and immediately went off the field.
He was then ruled out of the competition due to a grade two tear in the calf of his landing foot. Chameera then underwent an ankle surgery and was in a long rehabilitation, thus forcing him to miss white-ball games against India and New Zealand.
The fast bowler then made a comeback to international cricket in playing two out of three ODIs for Sri Lanka against Afghanistan at Hambantota earlier this month, picking figures of 2/18 and 4/63.
As far as the Super Six stage of the qualifiers, each team will play the sides they did not meet in the group stage and the top two will both progress to the Men's Cricket World Cup 2023, to be held in India from October 5 to November 19.
Sri Lanka will take four points through to the Super Six, after topping Group A with four out of four wins and seeing their group mates Scotland and Oman qualify for the next phase as well.