Veteran Sri Lanka batter Dimuth Karunaratne has announced that his 100th Test match this week against Australia will also be his last red-ball game.
On Thursday, Karunaratne will become the seventh Sri Lankan to play 100 Tests. He will take the field in Galle, the same venue where he made his Test debut in November 2012 against New Zealand.
Since his debut, Karunaratne has scored the most runs by a Sri Lankan opener in Tests – 7079. Overall, the 36-year-old will retire as the fourth highest run-scorer for his country in the red-ball format – 7172.
One of the reasons for his retirement is the last of Test cricket Sri Lanka has been playing recently.
“It is difficult for a Test player to keep himself motivated to play 4 Tests for a year and maintain his form,” Karunaratne was quoted as saying by ‘Daily FT’.
“In the last two-three years after the WTC (World Test Championship) was introduced, we have been having very little bilateral series,” he added.
Another reason the senior batter gave was his current form. Since the start of 2024, Karunaratne has only managed to score 541 runs in 11 matches at an average of 27.05. In the first match against Australia, the opener only managed 7 and 0 across two innings.
Sri Lanka is currently accommodating three senior players in Tests: Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, and Dinesh Chandimal.
“I have some personal plans of my own. I’ve decided to retire after speaking to other senior players like Angie (Angelo Mathews) and Chandi (Dinesh Chandimal),” he said.
“Rather than the three of us retiring at the same time, it will be better for us to go one by one. I thought I will retire first because I know I cannot go for my next target – 10,000 runs – with the lesser number of Tests being played,” he explained.