Mahela Jayawardene congratulates Thisara Perera on being named ODI skipper

In a recent turn of events, Thisara Perera was handed the baton of captaining the Sri Lankan limited-overs team in the ongoing tour against India. He was appointed as the replacement of Upul Tharanga, who had been marshalling the Lankan ODI and T20 teams since July, 2017. Former Sri Lankan captain, Mahela Jayawardena took to Twitter to congratulate Perera on his new role.

The decision to oust Tharanga from captaincy came after he accrued an abysmal track record of three 5-0 whitewashes in the ongoing cricketing season. All-rounder, Perera will serve as captain for his side in the upcoming three ODIs and three T20s against hosts, India. The 28-year old had previously led Sri Lanka in the T20 series against Pakistan last month.

Mahela Jayawardena tweets congratulatory message for Perera

Former Sri Lankan batting great, Jayawardena took to micro-blogging site, Twitter to convey his congratulations to the newly-appointed captain. In his tweet, he wished Perera luck and also endearingly called him “panda”, to add a personal touch to a usually perfunctory greeting. Jayawardena, on his part, led his team in Tests for 8 long years and captained the ODI side in 126 matches. One of Sri Lanka’s head coaches, Geoff Marsh went on to term the stalwart as the “best captain in Sri Lanka“.

Here’s what Jayawardena tweeted:

Wishing SLC new captain @PereraThisara all the very best..? come on panda ?

— Mahela Jayawardena (@MahelaJay) November 29, 2017

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had run out of choices when it came to handing over the captaincy, owing to the long string of failures that the national team has been going through in recent times. The Tharanga-led side was brutally defeated in against South Africa, Pakistan and India in the calendar year, 2017, leading selectors to look at other options. With Dinesh Chandimal already shouldering the Test captaincy, they zeroed in on Perera as the best replacement for Tharanga. Incidentally, Perera had also led the Sri Lankan side against Pakistan in Lahore and UAE last month, after Tharanga had opted out of the Lahore T20 due to security concerns.