ICC World T20: Sri Lanka unsure of Lasith Malinga’s availability for opener
Lasith Malinga missed Sri Lanka’s warm-up matches before the start of ICC World T20 super 10. (Source: AP)
Hinting that their ace pacer Lasith Malinga may miss their ICC World Twenty20 Super 10 opener against Afghanistan, Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews on Wednesday said they are yet to get a ‘yes or no’ about his availability.
“We are yet to get yes or no from physio. He will have net session tomorrow. We will test his bowling tomorrow and will wait.
“He bowled a couple of overs with short run-up. He will bowl with full runup on Thursday and we will take a call,” he said.
Concerned about his slow recovery from knee injury, the 2014 World T20 winning skipper handed the captaincy baton to the ODI and Test skipper Mathews just ahead of the tournament.
Malinga also joined the team two days ago and is terribly short on match practice having missed the two warmups against New Zealand and Pakistan which they lost.
He last bowled against UAE and made an impact with his 4/26 which was instrumental in their only win in the recently concluded Asia Cup T20 in Bangladesh.