Veteran Sri Lankan Opener Dimuth Karunaratne is set to retire from international cricket after the second Test against Australia in Galle. It is also the landmark 100th Test of his career having made his Test debut in 2012. Overall, he has amassed 7172 runs at an average of 39.4 with 16 centuries and 39 fifties.The 36-year-old has decided to step away from the game after a recent run of poor form with the bat at the top of the order. Karunaratne has scored only 182 runs in his last seven Test matches with a solitary half-century in September 2024 against New Zealand.
Karunaratne had made his Test debut on the same ground back in 2012 against New Zealand where he scored a duck and an unbeaten 60 in the same game, as Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets. Karunaratne has scored 7,172 runs across 99 Test matches with 16 Test hundreds so far to his name. He has a highest score of 244 against Bangladesh back in 2021. Despite being a stalwart for Sri Lanka in Test cricket, he also featured in 50 ODIs and 34 T20Is for the island nation with a lone ODI century in 2023 against Ireland.
Karunaratne has been one of the most consistent openers in Test cricket over the last decade. Having scored his maiden century against New Zealand in Christchurch in 2014, it was from 2015 that he started to consistently plunder the runs and become a permanent opener for Sri Lanka in Tests. He had scored 196 against Pakistan in a day-night Test in 2017, and in 2019 became captain of the Sri Lankan side. He captained his team to a Test series victory over South Africa (2-0) that same year, as Sri Lanka became the first Asian team to beat South Africa in a Test series in South Africa.Due to his stellar performances with the bat, Karunaratne was also named thrice in the ICC Test Cricket Team of the Year in 2018, 2021 and 2023.