The Sri Lankan all-rounder, Chamika Karunaratne impressed one and all with his all-around skills in the ongoing limited-overs series against India. The 25-year-old has been called the ‘find of the series,’ by the Sri Lankan coach Mickey Arthur. However, it was not an ideal T20I debut for Karunaratne as Sri Lanka lost the first match of the three-match series by 38 runs.
But later on, it turned out to be one of the best days of Karunaratne’s life as he received a bat from his ‘role model’ Indian all-rounder, Hardik Pandya. Captioning the video of him receiving the bat from Hardik, CHamika Karunaratne wrote: “Absolutely honored to have received a bat from my role model Hardik Pandya on my T20 debut.”
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He further added, “You are an amazing human being and I am truly touched by your thoughtful gesture. I’ll never forget this day. May God bless you always.”
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The promising all-rounder has played one Test, seven ODIs, and a T20 match for Sri Lanka. In the first ODI against India, Karunaratne was the highest run-getter for teh team batting at No. 8, hitting 43 off 35 balls. On Sunday evening, India produced a clinical performance with bat and ball to beat Sri Lanka by 38 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series in Colombo.
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Chasing a challenging 165 for victory, the visitors manaed to bundle out the Lankans at 126 in 18.3 overs thanks to excellent bowling in the death overs from the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with a brilliant spell of 4 for 22. Suryakumar Yadav (50) and Shikhar Dhawan (46) top-scored with the bat for India after Sri Lanka opted to bowl first.
