T20 World Cup 2022: Sri Lanka pacer Dushmantha Chameera ruled out of the tournament

In a big setback to the Sri Lankan team, express pacer Dushmantha Chameera has been ruled out of the entire T20 World Cup 2022. This comes as a big blow for Sri Lanka as Chameera could have proved to be deadly on Australia's fast-paced tracks. 

Chameera was excellent with the ball against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during his last outing as he took three wickets for his side, but he could not complete his full four-over quota after pulling up with a calf injury. Not only Chameera, but there are also concerns over Danushka Gunathilaka, and Pramod Madushan, as both of them are due to go for scans on hamstring injuries. 

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka completed a thumping victory over UAE in its second group-stage encounter on Tuesday. However, Sri Lanka's batting is still a concern as only the top three batters including Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva managed to cross the double-digit mark in the previous match against UAE. 

Sri Lankan coach Chris Silverwood believes it may have something to do with the weather

"The temperatures we're experiencing, the boys are not used to," Silverwood said. "It's certainly not Colombo. Even I'm cold, a little bit. You can't help it. The preparation and facilities we were given having arrived early, were superb. The boys have prepped the best we possibly can. We had a good camp in Kandy before we got on an airplane and came here. We've made the best of what we've had really."

"I think we adjusted pretty well today," Silverwood said. "In the first game we didn't read the conditions particularly well, and we certainly didn't grasp them. We're not hiding from that. That's something that we spoke about in the debrief quite honestly.

The coach also expressed his satisfaction with Nissanka's performance with the bat. "Pathum at the top of the order played a real match-winning innings. He should be very proud of himself for what he's done, helping the team get across the line," said Silverwood.