Hasaranga injury devastating blow for Sri Lanka

By Harsha Amarasinghe
Sri Lanka’s premier spinner, Wanindu Hasaranga, is set to miss out on the Cricket World Cup 2023 following a grade three hamstring tear. The 26-year-old was unavailable for Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup campaign due to the same injury, but many expected him to be ready for the World Cup. However, it has now been confirmed that the all-rounder aggravated the injury during his rehab, and therefore his participation in the World Cup looks highly unlikely.
The former Richmond College star was quite unfortunate not to be able to take part in the previous 50-over World Cup as well, where he was only named as a reserve player behind Jeevan Mendis and Jeffrey Vandersay - a decision that shocks many to date given that Hasaranga will go down in history as Sri Lanka’s greatest leg spinner ever, and to think that he would have zero fifty-over World Cup appearances potentially until he turns 30 is a pure fantasy. On the other hand, his absence would cause Sri Lanka even further problems, given that his contribution with the bat has also been quite significant. The right-hander demonstrated his class in the shorter format during the recently concluded Lanka Premier League (LPL), smashing runs in no time. Sri Lanka at times used Hasaranga as a floater in the batting line-up in both T20 and 50-over games in an attempt to shift the momentum. He could have been the ideal number eight for Sri Lanka now that Dasun Shanaka looks certain to retain his place in the team despite a series of failures.

Should Hasaranga miss the World Cup - which looks very likely at the minute - the obvious alternative would be young Dushan Hemantha, who is a very decent leg spinner and also a reasonable batsman, but in Hasaranga, Sri Lanka will have lost an absolute world-class star.
However, one of the other options Sri Lanka has is Dunith Wellalage. The former Sri Lanka Under-19 captain has done tremendously well in the recent past with the bat and ball. While Wellalage is a more reliable batsman and a steady bowler, he is a finger spinner, and the way modern games are played, most teams look to rely on their wrist spinners to take the wickets in the middle phase, which is so instrumental to the team’s success with all the fielding restrictions.
Top teams such as India (Kuldeep Yadav), Australia (Adam Zampa), South Africa (Tabraiz Shamzi), England (Adil Rashid), and Pakistan (Shadab Khan) have relied on their leg spinners to pick up wickets, and this is exactly what Sri Lanka will miss during the World Cup.