to his continuous injuries, he was not considered for the selection by the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2018 Nidahas Trophy. In the series, Sri Lanka suffered heavy losses against Bangladesh and omitted from the final as well. He was left out from team selection process in late 2017 when the sports ministry directly intervened into Sri Lanka cricket by introducing the minimum fitness standards. Malinga challenged the then sports minister Dayasiri Jayasekara regarding his exclusion from the team for lack of fitness levels and in retaliation Dayasiri used his authoritarian powers to sack Malinga from being selected to the national team for over a year. Sri Lanka Cricket informed Malinga to play in the domestic competition and then he will selected for the upcoming international tours. But, due to coaching responsibilities in Mumbai Indians, Malinga also missed 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. However, Malinga announced that he hope to join international squad for the South African limited over tour in Sri Lanka 2018. But he was not picked for both ODIs and T20Is. He however continued to work on his fitness and bowling with his mentor Anusha Ramanayake and following an impressive domestic season he was subsequently recalled to the national team for the 2018 Asia Cup. Malinga was included in the squad for 2018 Asia Cup as the premium fast bowler with Suranga Lakmal. He played the opening game of the series with Bangladesh and took two wickets in the first over of the match. He finished the spell with 4 wickets for just 23 runs. On 13 October 2018 against England in the second ODI of the series, Malinga took his 8th five-wicket haul. Four wickets of them were slow dipping yorkers, which credited as his best strength in the career. He finished five wickets for 44 runs, despite Sri Lanka lost the match by 31 runs in D/L method. During the match, he also completed 500 international wickets. Late ODI career During South African series in early 2019, under the captaincy of Malinga, Sri Lanka suffered another big loss. They lost the ODI series 5–0, which was the second time they lost 5–0 to South Africa away. In the T20I series, Sri Lanka suffered a 3–0 loss. During South African series, Malinga said that the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup would feature his final ODI appearance and 2020 ICC T20 World Cup would be his