All-rounder Dhananjaya de Silva has had to make a late withdrawal from Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies after the assassination of his father.

Dhananjaya’s father, Ranjan de Dilva, was shot by unidentified gunmen in Ratmalana, a suburb of Colombo, on Thursday night. A local politician, Ranjan was pronounced dead upon admission to the Kalubowila hospital.

The tragic incident took place on the eve of the Sri Lankan team’s departure for the Caribbean with team-mates rushing to the hospital on receiving the shocking news.

Sri Lanka are due to play three Tests on their tour of the West Indies. No official replacement for Dhanjaya has been announced by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) yet.

“We are extremely shocked, perturbed and saddened by the great loss suffered by Dhananjaya and his family,” SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala said in a statement.

“Sri Lanka Cricket will take every measure to support Dhananjaya at this time of sorrow and grief for him and his family, while giving him time to overcome the great pain and suffering caused by this tragedy.”

The 26-year-old Dhananjaya had become the joint-quickest Sri Lankan batsmen to score 1,000 runs in Test cricket this January. Having only recently worked his way back into the Sri Lankan team, the all-rounder registered a Test ton against India in Delhi last year and followed it up with another one against Bangladesh at Chittagong.