Instead of celebrating the team's second successive win in the ongoing tri-series, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara looked a sombre man on Tuesday as he announced that Chamara Silva and Muthumudalige Pushpakumara would miss the remainder of the tournament because of injuries.
Silva suffered a fractured finger while off-spinner Pushpakumara injured his shoulder in their tournament opener against Bangladesh and both did not play in their second match against India which Sri Lanka won by five-wickets.
"As of now Chamara Silva and Pushpakumara will no longer play a part in this tournament," Sangakkara said.
The Lankan captain, however, was hopeful that in-form opener Tillakaratne Dilshan, who skipped Tuesday's match against India due to a groin injury, would play later in the tournament.
"Dilshan is not going back home and he will be given treatment here. We are hoping that he can play a part sometime in the tournament," Sangakkara said.
The Lankan captain praised his young players for making their mark against a strong Indian side. "Six of the our players today have not played more than six ODIs. I am happy that they have done so well that we won. It is a matter of how you trust your players, back them and in return they showed their hunger to perform," Sangakkara said.
Even after their easy victory over Bangladesh on Monday, Sangakkara had voiced his concerns over dew becoming a major factor but on Tuesday he said his side won because of cricketing reasons and nothing else.
"Today there was not much dew compared to yesterday. So it was not as much because of the dew factor as it was yesterday. Probably we chased down the Indian total well though we had some hiccups," he said.
"There were some hiccups after I was out but as long as (centurion Thilan) Samaraweera was there we knew we could win," he said.
Despite Tuesday's win with an inexperienced side, Sangakkara was not ready to discount the strength of the Indians.
"The Indians are a strong side and they have great cricketing ability. But in One-day or Twenty20 cricket the performance on that particular day is important and probably we did better today," he said.
