COLOMBO, Feb 19: Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene has been ruled out of next month’s two-Test home series against Bangladesh after dislocating the middle finger of his left hand in a domestic match on Sunday.

Jayawardene picked up the injury while fielding in the slips during the Singhalese Sports Club’s Premier league match against Nondescript’s Cricket Club.

“Initial scans showed that it was only a dislocation but the scans were sent to Australia for further opinion,” Sri Lanka’s new team manager Michael de Zoysa said on Tuesday. “The opinion from Australia is that Mahela will have to undergo surgery and have a wire inserted to keep the dislocated bone in place. He will be out for between four-to-six weeks which means he is certainly ruled out of the Bangladesh Test series.”

Thilan Samaraweera would replace Jayawardene for the two Tests against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement.

Jayawardene, who resigned as captain after the recent Australian tour, has scored 10,806 runs in 138 Tests at an average of 49.56 with 31 centuries. He also has 10,892 one-day runs from 391 matches with 15 hundreds, and 1,293 runs in 46 Twenty20 Internationals.

Bangladesh will also play three One-day Internationals and a Twenty20 International on the tour.—Agencies