Sri Lanka’s Asela Gunaratne is certain to miss the rest of the three-Test series against India after suffering a multiple fracture of his thumb while fielding on Wednesday’s opening day of the first game.
The all-rounder was to undergo surgery in Colombo later Wednesday after being rushed from Galle where an X-ray confirmed a serious injury.
“Most probably he will miss a minimum of four weeks. We will know in the next 48 hours about the time frame,” Sri Lanka’s cricket manager Asanka Gurusinha told reporters. “He has fractures in three places. As soon as we saw the X-rays we knew it was very serious and we rushed him to Colombo. “(It’s) tough to lose one of our main players. We are down with ten players against the world’s number one team. He was our in-form batsman.”
Gunaratne, 31, sustained the injury in the first session of the Test while trying to take a catch off India’s Shikhar Dhawan at second slip.
Gunaratne dived to his left but the ball hit him on the thumb before spilling on to the ground. He left the field clutching his wrist. Dhawan went on to score a career-best 190 and help India finish the day on 399-3.
Gunaratne hit an unbeaten 80 in Sri Lanka’s record fourth-innings chase against Zimbabwe last week.