Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka’s mainstay in the ODI fast bowling department for 15 years, retired last Friday ranked in the 35th position with 552 rating points.
He was nowhere near his peak in terms of rankings, but retired as the only bowler to have taken three ODI hat-tricks.
“I feel it is time for me to retire, I have been playing for 15 years and this is the right time to move on,” said Malinga he took three wickets for 38 runs against Bangladesh in the first ODI as Sri Lanka won the match by 90 runs at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday.
Malinga with 338 wickets retired as Sri Lanka’s third highest ODI wicket taker behind Muttiah Muralideran (534) and Chaminda Vaas (400).
Malinga attained a career-high points tally of 675 after a memorable spell of three for 22 against Bangladesh in Colombo in July 2007. His highest ranking was in seventh in November 2011, achieved against Pakistan in Dubai.
Currently spinner Akila Dananjaya is the highest ranked bowler from Sri Lanka in the 21st position, while Angelo Mathews and Niroshan Dickwella are the leading batsmen for the home side, in 35th and 42nd positions respectively.
In the absence of World Cup star and world’s top all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who has been rested from the series, Bangladesh batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim (19th) and Tamim Iqbal (27th) will be leading the charge among batsmen while Mustafizur Rahman (15th) and Mehedy Hasan Miraz (17th) would be looking to move towards the top 10 in the bowlers’ list.