Karunaratne Deserves Opportunities To Emulate Stokes

Chamika Karunaratne has the opportunity to become Sri Lanka’s first-ever genuine all-rounder after Sanath Jayasuriya, only if the management around him gives him the opportunity to showcase his talent or else he could easily be another Asela Gunaratne.

- Harsha Amarasinghe

In recent times, Sri Lanka was fortunate to have the likes of Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera who could contribute with both ball and bat, but were they genuine all-rounders? However, Karunaratne in his brief career thus far has already indicated he has got all the attributes to be an allrounder such as Ben Stokes.

It must be stated that the Royalist has been horribly underutilised particularly in the ongoing series against South Africa. As a bowler, he has been only given eight overs in which he has claimed three wickets for 42 runs while Sri Lanka has conceded 569 runs in two games.

In terms of bringing the team together, Dasun Shanaka has done a tremendous job and there is no doubt that he is the best option to lead Sri Lanka in limited-overs cricket, but perhaps tactically he could make some adjustments that would benefit the team as a whole.