IPL 2019: Lasith Malinga to leave for Sri Lanka to participate in domestic One-Day tournament

The Lasith Malinga tale in the Indian Premier League (IPL) tale has taken another U-turn. He will be returning to Sri Lanka on Wednesday to participate in the domestic One-Day tournament which is set to commence on April 4 and will conclude on April 11. The competition is set to be the World Cup trials ahead of the squad selection for the mega event.

“Yes, he (Malinga) will be reaching Sri Lanka tomorrow and will be available for the provincial tournament,” Sri Lanka’s chief selector Asantha de Mel said while speaking to Sportstar. This comes as a huge surprise for everyone as, only last week, the SLC had cleared him to play in the whole IPL season and the chief selector had granted the permission saying that it was never an issue.

Also, Malinga won’t be featuring in the game against the Chennai Super Kings which is set to be played on Wednesday.

Who will replace him?

Lasith Malinga’s absence is definitely a blow for the Mumbai Indians. But Jason Behrendorff has arrived at the right time for them. He might straight away replace the Sri Lankan veteran in the playing XI for the game against the CSK at the Wankhede stadium. Behrendorff joined the Mumbai side recently after the successful Pakistan series in the UAE. It will be interesting to see how he fares in his first game.

Mumbai are once again in a spot of bother after starting off poorly this season. They have lost two out of three matches so far and another loss might put a lot of pressure on the team now. The MI will take confidence from the fact that they have managed to keep a lid on CSK over the years and lead the head to head battle 14-12 after 26 matches.

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