Reporter's honest mistake leaves people in giggles, confuses Dickwella for De Silva

Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella on Thursday shared a light moment with the media gathered at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium during a press conference after the end of play on day two of the first Test against Pakistan.

In a video posted on Twitter, Dickwella was forced to improvise after a reporter, identified as Asghar Ali Mubarak, mistook him for Dhananjaya de Silva, another batsman of the Sri Lanka team.

In the video, Mubarak can be heard asking Dickwella whether he was thinking about getting a century, oblivious to the fact that Dickwella had already been dismissed at the score of 33 by pacer Shaheen Afridi.

"You mean me?" a bemused Dickwella said in response to the query, before quickly realising that the reporter had him confused with teammate De Silva. Dickwella smiled and corrected the reporter, telling him, "I am not De Silva. I am Dickwella. I got out," he said.

As the assortment of reporters laughed at the honest mistake, Dickwella said that he was already out, but would definitely think about getting a century in the second innings of the match.

When asked about the welcome he had received in Pakistan, Dickwella said that he was really happy with the hospitality afforded to him, and that he was proud to be in Pakistan. He also said that he understood the historical importance of the occasion.

International Test cricket has returned to Pakistan after a gap of more than a decade. In 2009, a terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in Lahore had forced Test-playing nations to skip tours to Pakistan over security concerns. The first Test of a two match series is currently underway in Rawalpindi.

The second Test of the series will be played at National Stadium in Karachi. Sri Lanka have sent a full strength team to Pakistan for the series, and the successful tour could encourage other nations to reconsider their earlier refusals and return to play in Pakistan.