Ajantha Mendis to miss Bangladesh Tests

Mendis to miss Bangladesh Tests

Mendis won the ICC Emerging Player award in September

Spin bowler Ajantha Mendis has been ruled out of Sri Lanka's forthcoming Test series in Bangladesh because of an ankle injury.

The 23-year-old, recently named world cricket's Emerging Player of the Year, suffered the injury in a club match.

Mendis will be replaced by Rangana Herath for the two-match series, which starts in Mirpur on 26 December.

But he hopes to play in the triangular one-day series, also involving Zimbabwe, which follows in January.

Mendis was an instant success when he made his Test debut against India earlier this year.

He took 26 wickets at a cost of only 18 runs each, breaking former England seam bowler Alec Bedser's 62-year-old record for the most victims in a three-match series.

Sri Lanka have won all 10 previous Test meetings with Bangladesh and, despite Mendis's absence, will be confident of extending that run.

Sri Lanka claim series whitewash

Fifth one-day international, Harare: Sri Lanka 152 all out (48.5 ov) bt Zimbabwe 133 all out (44.0 ov) by 19 runs
Match scorecard

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Sri Lanka won despite batting poorly in Sunday's final one-dayer

Sri Lanka wrapped up a 5-0 series whitewash with victory over Zimbabwe in the final one-day match in Harare.

The tourists had posted their lowest total in the series as Zimbabwe rattled them out for 152 with Ed Rainsford returning figures of 3-22 in Harare.

But Zimbabwe could not take advantage and lost their first six wickets for only 58 runs to lose by 19 runs.

Muttiah Muralitharan did the most damage, capturing 5-29, while Keith Dabengwa top-scored with 39 runs.

Despite some modest performances by Sri Lanka in the series, skipper Mahela Jayawardene insisted he was pleased enough.

"When we came here we set ourselves goals. We needed to win 5-0. We did that," he said after finishing the series with two ducks.

If the top-order doesn't click, the middle order must come to the party. We need to complement each other Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya

"Yes, it wasn't convincing, but considering the conditions and that the oppositions played well in the last three games, especially with the ball, we have to take that as an achievement.

"We knew it was going to be difficult to get 250 runs on this kind of wicket and we knew we could not afford to play bad shots. We made some mistakes.

"But the most important thing is that the guys rose up under pressure and came back strongly. We never said it was going to be a walk in the park. We needed to play consistently."

Simbabwe skipper Prosper Utseya said: "If the top-order doesn't click, the middle order must come to the party. We need to complement each other. Guys are working hard, to be honest with you, we are just failing to get the results."