A shoulder injury meant that he was not considered for the 1979 World Cup. He was named in the 12 for the inaugural Test match where England played against Sri Lanka, but was left out on the morning of the game in favour of Lalith Kaluperuma. He did play in two ODIs against England, but his fortunes were the reverse of Sri Lanka's - in the first ODI, he scored a quickfire 51, but was caught by Geoff Cook just as Sri Lanka needed to up the run rate to chase England's total. They finished six runs short of victory. In the second, Ranasinghe recorded a duck, and yet Sri Lanka won by three runs - although his nine economical overs, conceding only 37 runs, had some say in the win.