Sri Lankan allrounder expected to miss the NatWest T20 blast

Defending champions Northants are likely to miss the services of Seekkuge Prasanna for the entire NatWest T20 Blast this season. The Sri Lankan allrounder has been battling a hamstring injury for a while now and isn’t expected to feature in the tournament.

Earlier, the Northants had decided to sign Prasanna again after a good season last year where he featured in 10 games for them in their victorious campaign. He had proved to be a valuable asset for the champs. The leg-spinner took 12 wickets at an astounding bowling average of 21.41 and an excellent economy rate of around 7 in the tournament.

Statement from the team management

“We have looked for potential replacements but we’re going to stick with our own,” head coach David Ripley told BBC Radio Northampton.

He recalled the previous time when Prasanna had been called by Sri Lanka. “It reminds me of when Seekkuge got called up for Sri Lanka last season – we hunted high and low for replacements for five games and in the end we got nowhere,” Ripley said.

He sounded confident that his absence won’t affect their odds in the tournament, “Those five games went pretty well for us with our own and then on Finals Day we hoped Seekkuge would be back, he didn’t make it but we had people step up to the plate.”

Tabraiz Shamsi stepping up

As of now, South African chinaman Shami was playing in the absence of the Sri Lankan who was on international duty. He has been in tremendous form for the Steelbacks, helping them claim two wins from their first four games in the tournament.

He has bowled brilliantly so far with stupendous figures of 2/20 against Durham and 2/24 against Birmingham. Shamsi has already made a crucial impact early into the tournament and made himself an integral part of the Northants team setup.