Sri Lanka include Ramith Rambukwella in place of Upul Tharanga for the lone T20I

The Sri Lanka team management has called in all-rounder Ramith Rambukwella to the T20 squad which will play against England on Tuesday. He will replace Upul Tharanga in the team for a one-off T20 match. The remainder of the squad has seen no changes apart from this.

Rambukwella and made his T20 debut in 2013 against New Zealand but never played again. It was a good outing for him where he finished taking 1/19 from four overs in that match. The selection committee in the leadership of Sanath Jayasuriya has shown faith in him again. Co-incidentally, his Jayasuriya was also the chief selectors when he was included in the team for the first time.

In 40 T20 matches, Rambukwella averages 18.04 and strikes at 154 with the bat and has 36 wickets and an economy rate of 6.71. He hit 141 runs and claimed seven wickets in eight matches of SLC’s club-based T20 tournament this year, but was significantly less effective in the provincial T20 tournament.

Left-arm spinning all-rounder Milinda Siriwardana, who was part of Sri Lanka’s World T20 squad, is the most notable absence from this T20 squad. He had already returned to Sri Lanka ahead of the ODIs.

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The tour has been quite upsetting for the Sri Lankans who have lost both the Tests and ODI series. The home side leads the visitors with an equation of 18 points as to 4 points. In the 8 matches both teams played against each other (includes both Test and ODIs), England have won 5 out of it while the Lankans are yet to taste victory in the tour.