Dimuth Karunaratne, the former Sri Lanka captain, is set to retire from Test cricket after making his 100th appearance in the format in Sri Lanka's second match against Australia in Galle. The 36-year-old will retire as the fourth highest run scorer for Sri Lanka in Tests after Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews, going into his final match with 7172 runs at an average of 39.40.
Karunaratne has not played ODI cricket since November 2023 and never played a single T20I, thus making him a Test specialist in recent years. The second Test against Australia is Sri Lanka's last in the current WTC cycle and they only play two more Tests after this until May 2026. Karunaratne said that he informed Sri Lanka Cricket of his decision after the first Test against Australia.
"It was the right time to go, considering there are three or four younger players who could come in for the next WTC cycle," Karunaratne told ESPNcricinfo. “Plus, this match was in Galle, where I made my debut, so it will be nice to finish things there.”
‘Would’ve loved to make it to the WTC final'
Karunaratne is Sri Lanka's most prolific opener in Test cricket by some distance. He will also become Sri Lanka's seventh cricketer to 100 Tests, following Sanath Jayasuriya, Muthiah Muralidaran, Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews. He also captained the side in 30 Tests. Under him, Sri Lanka beat South Africa away from 2-0 in 2019 to record one of their most famous Test series wins of all time.
{{/usCountry}}Karunaratne is Sri Lanka's most prolific opener in Test cricket by some distance. He will also become Sri Lanka's seventh cricketer to 100 Tests, following Sanath Jayasuriya, Muthiah Muralidaran, Chaminda Vaas, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews. He also captained the side in 30 Tests. Under him, Sri Lanka beat South Africa away from 2-0 in 2019 to record one of their most famous Test series wins of all time.
{{/usCountry}}"Playing 100 Tests is a tough thing to accomplish, especially when you're an opening batter and you're doing the dirty work for the team. If I have regrets, one of them would be not being able to get to 10,000 Test runs. I thought the way that I was going in 2017, 2018 and 2019, that I'd have the chance to get there. But then Covid hit, and Sri Lanka don't play as many Tests anymore," said Karunaratne.
Karunaratne also would've liked to play in a WTC final once. Sri Lanka came close to making it in the current cycle. "I'd also have loved to make it to a World Test Championship final and experience that feeling of being in a final. We were close twice, but it never happened," he said.