Colombo: After suffering a loss at the hands of New Zealand in the opening match of the ICC World Twenty20, Sri Lanka’s chances of advancing in the World Cup suffered another huge blow with champion spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, being ruled out for the rest of the tournament with a groin injury.

Murali has been advised two to three weeks’ rest, and no replacement has been named yet.

The off-spinner, who is also the team’s vice-captain, was injured during Friday’s opening match against New Zealand in Guyana, which Sri Lanka lost by two wickets. “Clinical tests revealed a grade one strain of his right adductor muscle,” team physiotherapist Tommy Simsek said in a statement released by Sri Lanka Cricket in Colombo.

The defeat in the opening match means that Sri Lanka needs to win their match against Zimbabwe if they want to advance in the tournament. Muralitharan, besides being Sri Lanka’s frontline spinner, is the leading wicket-taker in international cricket and he has been in very good form in the shortest format of the game which he showed during the Indian Premier League, in which he played for the Chennai Super Kings, the side which went on to win the tournament.

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