Dimuth Karunaratne will bow out of Test cricket this week, the Sri Lanka opener has announced. (More Cricket News)
🦂Former Sri Lanka captain Karunaratne will feature in his 100th and final Test of a glittering career when his team take on Australia in Galle later this week.
ꦺKarunaratne oversaw 30 Tests as skipper between 2019 and 2023, winning 12 of them.
🌞Since making his debut in the longest format in November 2012, Karunaratne has scored 7,172 runs, averaging 39.4.
🐻Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Karunaratne said: "It was the right time to go, considering there are three or four younger players who could come in for the next WTC cycle.
💝"Plus, this match was in Galle, where I made my debut, so it will be nice to finish things there."
🧔After their series with Australia concludes, Sri Lanka are only due to play two more Tests before May 2026.
🧔Karunaratne believes that is a factor in him falling short of a goal he set himself, to score 10,000 Test runs, something that Australia's Steve Smith achieved in the first Test against Sri Lanka last week.
🀅He added: "Playing 100 Tests is a tough thing to accomplish, especially when you're an opening batter and you're doing the dirty work for the team.
൲"If I have regrets, one of them would be not being able to get to 10,000 Test runs. I thought the way that I was going in 2017, 2018 and 2019, that I'd have the chance to get there. But then COVID-19 hit, and Sri Lanka don't play as many Tests anymore.
𝓡"I'd also have loved to make it to a World Test Championship final and experience that feeling of being in a final. We were close twice, but it never happened."
♛Since the start of 2024, Karunaratne has only averaged 27.05 across 11 Tests.
🐎His top score in that time came against Afghanistan in February last year, when he hit 109.
♊The 36-year-old's highest score was 244, which he plundered against Bangladesh in April 2021.
