Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga will retire from ODI cricket af﷽ter the first game of a three-match series against Bangladesh, skipper Dimuth Karunaratne said at a press conferenceꦚ on Monday.
“He [Malinga] is going to play the first match. After that, he is retiring. That’s what he said to me. I don’t know what he said for the selectors but for me he said he is playing only one match,” Karunaratne was quoted as saying by AFP.
Th🧸e three ODIs which Bangladesh will play in Sri Lanka are scheduled for July 26, 28 and 31 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Malinga, a veteran for Sri Lanka since his debut in 2004, will retire from the ODI format as country’s third-highest wicket-taker, with 335 wickets in 219 innings so far.
Muttiah Muralitharan (523) and Chaminda Vaas (399) are the only Sri Lanka♕ns to have taken more wickets than Malinga in ODIs.
The slingy pacer was also Sri Lanka’s highest wicket-taker at the recently concluded World Cup, claiming 13 wickets in seven innings.
Malinga retired from Test cricket in 2011 but continued to re🌠main available in other🦹 formats since then.
The 35-year-old speedster will continue to play T20Is for Sri Lanka. “I want to play in the T20 World Cup and then end my career,” he had said earlier this year.
