Nuwan Kulasekara retires from international cricket

T20 World Cup-winning Sri Lanka pacer Nuwan Kulasekara announced retirement from international cricket with immediate effect on Wednesday.

Kulasekara, 37, was not part of Sri Lanka’s World Cup 2019 squad and last played for the senior national team in 2017. Kulasekara hadn’t played competitive cricket at the senior level since March 2018 during which he played List-A cricket.
 
Known for his ability to swing the ball both ways, Nuwan Kulasekara was a successful new-ball bowler for Sri Lanka in the limited-over formats. Not just with the new-ball, Kulasekara was a fine bowler at the death as well as the pacer had the ability to fire in accurate yorkers under pressure.

 
Kulasekara played 184 ODIs for Sri Lanka and picked up 199 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 4.90. The right-arm pacer played 58 T20Is and finished with 66 wickets. Kulasekara was part of the victorious Sri Lanka team that clinched the T20 World Cup in 2014.

Kulasekara did not find a lot of success in Test matches. The 37-year-old played just 21 Test matches before retiring in 2016.

Kulasekara rose to the No. 1 spot in ODI bowlers’ rankings in 2008, a year after he made his World Cup debut for Sri Lanka. Kulasekara was part of Sri Lanka’s 3 World Cup squads. He played 2 World Cup finals and finished with runners-up medals on both the occasions as the islander’s lost to Australia and India in the 2007 and 2011 World Cup finals.