Karunaratne pushes for increase in priority to Test cricket
When Sri Lankan skipper Dimuth Karunaratne will walk out with his Pakistan counterpart Babar Azam to complete the formalities of the toss for the opening Test at Galle on July 16, it will be fifth Test for Sri Lanka in 2023. Sri Lanka will play one more Test against Pakistan and following that game will be without red-ball cricket for the remainder of the year. This year Australia has already played nine Test matches while England and India have played six and five Test matches respectively. According to the Future Tour Program in 2023, Australia are slated to play 14 Test matches while India and England will play eight and nine games in whites. From 2021 to the end of 2023, England are playing 38 Test matches while Australia and India are playing 30 Test matches. During the same period, Sri Lanka are playing 21 Tests. Dimuth, who was apparently involved only in leading the Sri Lankan Test side before making a comeback in the ODIs format recently, certainly is not happy with their way things are going as far Test cricket is concerned. The left-handed opener believes that until the International Cricket Council (ICC) makes a move that will help all the Test playing nations to have more longer-format international games, it will be hard to survive. Dimuth said that as all the cricketing nations are hosting T20 franchise-based leagues it is not mandatory to play bilateral shorter-format series between Test playing nations apart from playing the World Cup and if that is the case it might give some room for Test cricket.
