Dimuth richly deserves two milestones, says his mentor

Harsha de Silva, the childhood coach and mentor of Sri Lanka Test captain Dimuth Karunaratne, believes Karunaratne will be able to achieve his goals of playing 100 Tests and scoring 10,000 runs in the format.

The 33-year-old Dimuth Karunaratne expressed this at the end of the first Test match against West Indies at Galle, which the home team won.

De Silva, who is in Australia on coaching assignments, said,“i have no doubt in his ability reaching these goals. I sincerely hope he achieves these two milestones. He richly deserves this for the hard work he puts in day in day out to improve his game.”

“Dimuth started playing Test cricket very early in his career. It’s a fact that we see modern day cricketers continue to play well into their late 30’s and some even in their early 40’s. This is due to high fitness levels, lifestyles and better injury prevention/recovery systems”.

“He lost a few games through tours getting cancelled due to the current pandemic. But, with the ICC Test Championship and other bilateral tours between countries we will see him playing enough cricket to reach the milestones”, he added further.

De Silva, who also coached Sri Lanka’s national women’s team, had the privilege of working with Karunaratne for about five years at his development stage at St. Joseph’s College. Karunaratne was about 14 years of age and De Silva was coaching St. Joseph’s College, Colombo at that time.

De Silva also had the honour of working with him whenever he is on a holiday in Sri Lanka, at the captain’s request.