Sri Lanka batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan, who pioneered the “Dilscoop” flick over the wicketkeeper’s head, has announced his international retirement.
Dilshan, 39, will step down after a final one-day international on Sunday and two more Twenty20 internationals next month, all against Australia.
He appeared in 87 Tests, 329 ODIs and 78 T20 games for his country.
Dilshan made his international debut in 1999 and was part of the Sri Lanka team that won the World Twenty20 in 2014.
As well as being an innovative, aggressive batsman, he was also an off-spin bowler, taking 152 international wickets, an excellent fielder and an occasional wicketkeeper, also captaining his country for a spell between 2011 and 2012.
Dilshan, who has scored 17,624 international runs, is the most capped T20 player in Sri Lankan history and the fifth highest in ODIs, though he retired from Tests in 2013.
He was the top scorer at the 2009 World T20 – where he popularised the “Dilscoop” and was named as player of the tournament – and the 2011 World Cup.
Sri Lanka were losing finalists in both those events, as they were at the 2007 World Cup.
