KANDY (Sri Lanka), Jan 3: Sri Lanka, 1-0 up in their three-test series against Zimbabwe, have dropped vice-captain and opening batsman Marvan Atapattu for the second Test starting at the Asgiriya International Stadium Friday.

Atapattu, who made only 25 in Sri Lanka’s first innings of 586 for six declared in the Colombo series opener, is a veteran of 52 Test matches but was replaced by Chamara Silva in a 14-man squad named Thursday.

Silva, 22, is a right-hand middle-order batsman who hit a match-winning 127 off 118 balls for a Sri Lankan Board XI against Zimbabwe in a three-day tour game last month.

But captain Sanath Jayasuriya, who has regularly opened Sri Lanka’s batting with Atapattu in Test matches, was surprised that his vice-skipper had been dropped from the squad by the selectors.—Agencies