Sri Lanka’s legendary wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara is expected to call time on his international career after the first Test against India in August, according to a report in ESPNcricinfo.
Sangakkara has informed the Sri Lanka Cricket board that he will play the first two Tests against Pakistan in the upcoming series and the first Test against India will be his last.
The first Test against India is scheduled to be held at Galle, although the venues for that tour have not been formally announced yet; however, there are chances that his farewell Test is moved to his hometown Kandy.
Sangakkara had intended to retire from all formats following the World Cup earlier this year but was convinced to stay on for two more series by former selectors and skipper Angelo Mathews. The selectors tried to convince the batsman to play all six Tests against Pakistan and India, but Sangakkara reportedly told them that he will only be available for first two Pakistan Tests and one match against India as he has other commitments, mainly to his county side Surrey.
Sanga scored 12,203 Test runs that included 38 hundreds at an average of 58.66. He will retire as Sri Lanka’s most successful Test batsman. He is also the fastest batsman to reach 8000, 9000, 10,000 (joint fastest with Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara), 11,000 and 12,000 Test runs in terms of innings played.
