Sri Lankan left-hand opener Upul Tharanga injured a foot and has been ruled out of the first two Tests against Bangladesh compounding problems to secure the top order, an official said today.“Tharanga was hit on his foot by a Lasith Malinga delivery this morning,” Sri Lanka Cricket secretary Kangadaran Mathivanan said. He said Tharanga will miss the first two Tests in the series of three Tests and three one-day matches against Bangladesh which gets under way next week.Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka’s most accomplished opening batsman has already pulled out citing personal commitments.“We will be looking at Thilan Samaraweera, Michael Vandort and Jehan Mubarak to fill in Tharanga’s role,” Mathivanan said.No action against Atapattu: Meanwhile, officials said here today that former Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu will not be subjected to a disciplinary inquiry despite his self-imposed absence from the home series against Bangladesh.It was initially expected that Sri Lanka Cricket would ask the 37-year-old right-hander to show cause for his decision to stay out of the team despite being included in the 15-man squad. “We will speak to him on his contractual obligations (with Sri Lanka Cricket), but stop short of taking disciplinary action,” a senior SLC official said.Jayantha Dharmadasa, the SLC chief, said they would go easy on Atapattu. “We will have to consider Marvan’s services to the country as a player and captain,” he said, suggesting that the national governing body would not pursue any drastic action.Atapattu is one of SLC’s 18 contracted players.The last of his 88 Tests was in December 2005 and he was overlooked for the entirety of the World Cup and the subsequent series with Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.He was recalled to the side for the Bangladesh series before announcing his surprising pullout last week, citing personal commitments.
