Sri Lanka U19 vs Bangladesh U19 Wellalage to lead Sri Lanka against Bangladesh

By M. Shamil Amit

St. Joseph’s allrounder Dunith Wellalage has been selected to lead the Sri Lanka Under 19 squad for the forthcoming five-match ODI series against reigning ICC World U19 champions Bangladesh, scheduled to get underway on October 15 at the Rangiri Dambulla stadium. Wellalage is the most senior player of the squad having represented the Sri Lanka U19’s having made his debut in 2018. Wellalage steered the Josephians to clinch the SLSCA-conducted U19 schools limited-over tournament earlier this year.

The skipper will have an experienced player in Matheesha Pathirana of Trinity who was a member of the Sri Lanka U19 at the ICC U19 World Cup last year.

Apart from these two players the 20-member squad comprises talented young cricketers in the caliber of Chaminda Wickramasinghe, Yasiru Rodrigo and Raveen de Silva, who all have represented the national junior team at different stages.

However, it’s left to be seen how the Sri Lanka youngsters, who will be playing the first series, perform as they will be pitted against a strong Bangladesh outfit who will be coming into the series with confidence having come out victorious against the Afghanistan U19 recently.

St. Joseph’s along with St. Peter’s and St. Anthony’s have three players each while Trinity, Nalanda, S. Thomas’ Mt. Lavinia and Devapathiraja MMV have two each. The biggest surprise is that no players from the high-riding Richmond side, who have four players in the present senior national team, have been able to find a slot. The other four games will be played on October 18, 20, 23 and 25, with the two teams placed in a bio-secure environment from October 7.