Kusal Perera ruled out of Bangladesh T20Is with respiratory infection

Kusal Perera has been ruled out of Sri Lanka's T20I leg of their Bangladesh tour with a respiratory infection. Niroshan Dickwella will fly in as his replacement and will link up with the team on Saturday; the rest of the side flew to Bangladesh on 29 February.

Dickwella had last played for Sri Lanka in March 2023, and his last white-ball game for the national side was in June 2022.

He has fifties in his two most recent List A games in the Men's National Super League, including a Player-of-the-Match performance in his last game, but it was a prolonged lack of form with the national side that had seen him excluded by the previous set of selectors.

Dickwella has also had his share of disciplinary issues, most notably being one of the three players, along with Kusal Mendis and Danushka Gunatilake, to be banned for breaching team bio-bubble protocols in 2021.

Charith Asalanka will stand in as Sri Lanka captain in place of the suspended Wanindu Hasaranga for the first two of three T20Is against Bangladesh starting March 4 in Sylhet. All three T20Is will be played in Sylhet.

Sri Lanka T20I squad: Wanindu Hasaranga (capt for last game), Charith Asalanka (capt for first two games), Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Angelo Mathews, Dasun Shanaka, Maheesh Theekshana, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella, Dilshan Madushanka, Nuwan Thushara, Matheesha Pathirana, Akila Dananjaya, Binura Fernando, Kamindu Mendis, Avishka Fernando, Jeffrey Vandersay