11cricket.com

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s world bowling record holder Muttiah Muralitharan will miss the rest of the one-day series in India due to a finger injury, a team official said on Wednesday.

Muralitharan, 37, sat out Tuesday’s first one-dayer in Rajkot in which the tourists almost chased down India’s 414-7 before being restricted to 411-8 in the high-scoring thriller.

The off-spinner will return home later on Wednesday and will not take part in the remaining four games, team manager Brendon Kuruppu told reporters.

“We have decided to rest Murali from the one-day series to allow him to recover fully and be available for future tournaments,” Kuruppu said.

“Murali injured his ring and middle fingers in his right hand during the Mumbai Test earlier this month and is going back home.”

Muralitharan, whose 792 Test and 512 one-day wickets are world records, will be replaced by two off-spinners, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara and Suraj Randiv, for the rest of the series.

The duo will join the squad ahead of Friday’s second match in Nagpur, Kuruppu said.

Sri Lanka lost the Test series against India 2-0 and both teams won a Twenty20 international each ahead of the one-dayers.

Sri Lanka are due to play a tri-series with India and Bangladesh in Dhaka from January 4-13.