Sri Lanka Cricket Players – A Comprehensive Biography

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Posted: April 9, 2021

Updated: April 9, 2021

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Image source: Flickr

From the era of Mahadevan Sathasivam in the 1940s, Sri Lanka has consistently been a power to battle with. The MJ Gopalan Trophy, the yearly contest between Tamil Nadu and Ceylon; ensured that their names made it to the Indian cricket media. Their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity came after overcoming India in the 1979 World Cup; inside three years the Sri Lanka cricket team played Test cricket. It took them longer than 10 years to win a foreign series arrangement – in New Zealand. However, once that occurred there was no halting them. They demolished different teams on their path to lifting the 1996 World Cup. Men like Sanath Jayasuriya reclassified the idea of aggressive batting during the 1990s. The following is a Sri Lanka cricket players biography.

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Sri Lanka proceeded to get quite possibly the most impressive restricted overs champion sides; arriving at the finals in consecutive World Cup and World Twenty20 competitions. There have been names like Aravinda de Silva, Chaminda Vaas, Kumar Sangakkara, and Mahela Jayawardene who have added to the achievement of the side. Yet the impact made by Muttiah Muralitharan, ostensibly the best off-spinner ever, and an individual whose count of wickets will conceivably never be surpassed; in their set of experiences has been close to none.

Kumar Sangakkara biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

There are several Sri Lanka cricket players which belong to the cricket legend hall of fame. Among them is a celebrated cricket personality, Kumar Sangakkara. Sangakkara has had a captivating career which most fans have thoroughly enjoyed. The former captain of the Sri Lankan team made his test debut at the young age of 22. This maybe the average age for most cricketers, but Sangakkara’s performance chart was on the rise ever since. Sangakkara’s struggle to a century was real, with several efforts in the making.

Sri Lanka Cricket Players
Sangakkara – Image source: TonyPatterson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

But at last, in the match against India, Kumar Sangakkara made his first century on home ground. Henceforth, Sangakkara was emerging as an upcoming batsman; who later went on to score his ultimate double century against Pakistan in 2002. His several achievements in line led him to one of the most prestigious honors in cricket: the ICC World XI ODI team. This was a huge honor for Sangakkara who early on gained his vice-captaincy.

With the vice-captaincy in hand with Mahela Jayawardene, Sangakkara made great strides in his career. Though the vice-captaincy was not supposed to be a long-term contract, both the cricketers seemingly became good at it. All the while Sangakkara was setting new standards for himself. His reputation in line with his performance saw him climb to the top of the ICC  Test player rankings with a remarkable rating of 938.

In 2009, Sangakkara along with the rest of the Sri Lanka cricket players went through an unfortunate terrorist attack in Pakistan. Several were injured during the attack including Sangakkara who suffered shrapnel wounds to his shoulder. After bouncing back from his injuries, Sangakkara went on to score two consecutive double centuries in test cricket.

Sangakkara and captaincy

After the resignation of Jayawardene from captaincy in 2009, Sangakkara resumed being the captain in all formats. This was going to be a test-run for the new captain. The 2011 Cricket world cup was fast approaching. This was the perfect moment for Sangakkara to leave a mark in cricket history. His determination did get the Sri Lankan team across all the stages and to the final. However, the team ended up being the runner-ups. Nevertheless, praises flew for the captain from fans and ICC, naming him captain and wicketkeeper for the ‘Team of the Tournament.

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After his resignation from captaincy, Sangakkara still continued giving his spectacular performances. Eventually, his career landed him the ‘ODI cricketer of the year’ award.

Sri Lanka Cricket Players
Kumar Sangakkara – Image source: Flickr

Dimuth Karunaratne biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

Dimuth Karunaratne is a strong left-hand opening batsman. Another graduate of the St Joseph’s College side that created Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera; whom he likewise played within the Sri Lanka cricket players Under-19 side. Karunaratne made his first-class debut for Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in 2008. However had a poor first season, batting generally in the center. 

He grabbed a spot in the top order in 2009. Eventually, he began scoring all the more reliably from that point. His maiden first-class century, against Colts Cricket Club, proclaimed a swamp of 1186 runs in the season, at an average of 56.54. His productive form earned him a call-up for the Sri Lanka A group against visiting South Africa A. Where he again intrigued, making 184 against a bowling attack that included Vernon Philander. 

Karunaratne has not recreated a similar volume of runs since his subsequent season. Although he has gained notoriety for scoring big tons against great bowling attacks. He played two ODIs for Sri Lanka in 2011, making 4 and 60. Additionally, he called for the Test visit to South Africa later in the year, however, he didn’t get a game. 

He visited South Africa again in July 2012. However, with the A group, and intrigued with scores of 83 and 150 not out on that visit. Not long after that, he ended up on the verge of a Test debut. He made the selection to open close by SSC accomplice Tharanga Paranavitana; swapping the injured Tillakaratne Dilshan for the Test against New Zealand in Galle.

Kusal Mendis biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

Gifted with a compact method, a forceful drive, and an iron determination, Kusal Mendis rose quickly through the age-group framework. He immediately became quite possibly the most talented youthful batsman on the planet. Mendis had played just 16 first-class innings before he made his Test debut at 20 years old. He had hit just one first-class ton preceding he made a maiden Test hundred. That hundred – the 176 against Australia at Pallekele – was a match-flipping, series characterizing innings. Furthermore which given the reality, no other batsman gathered more than 55 in the game. It is definitely one of the best Sri Lankan innings. From that point forward, Mendis has assembled some amazing ODI innings too. He has implanted himself in the Test top four. 

A profoundly appraised graduate of Sri Lanka’s school cricket framework; Mendis’ batting had procured him an enormous following before he was on the national selectors’ radar. As wicketkeeper and streaming right-hand batsman, Mendis won the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year grant in 2013, for his work in the Prince of Wales College group. He was Sri Lanka’s under-19 skipper in the Youth World Cup the next year. 

Mendis started his first-class vocation for Bloomfield Cricket Club in the Premier League Tournament of 2015. He had a mediocre first season, hitting 459 runs at an average of 30.60. However, kept on being followed intently as Sri Lanka cricket players moved to flood their Test group with youth. It was Mendis’ fantastic returns in the Moin-ud-Dowlah three-day competition in Hyderabad that cleared his course to the national group. He was in the crew to play West Indies in October 2015. Eventually making his introduction in the second match of that arrangement.

Kusal Perera biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

Blessed with a short backlift, strong lower arms, and persevering ridiculous mindedness; left-gave batsman Kusal Janith Perera’s batting isn’t simply by his saint Sanath Jayasuriya’s strategy. Somehow now again, it appears to be an accurate copy. 

Like Jayasuriya, he has a subsequent ability. On the other hand, it is the wicketkeeping instead of moderate left-arm. He was also important for Sri Lanka’s Under-19 groups before joining Colts Cricket Club as a senior. At Colts, Perera immediately set about producing a career established on hostility and dependability in equivalent parts. Consequently, after two seasons, Sri Lanka’s selectors could not disregard him anymore. 

A physical issue to Kumar Sangakkara saw him procure a spot in Sri Lanka’s restricted overs crew to Australia in January 2012; where his blustery innings made clear his ability. Especially during a 22 not out at the Gabba that took Sri Lanka home in a low-scoring ODI. Even though he is a center request batsman by notoriety; his promotion came in time for the position of an opener in the two following Twenty20s; where he kept on playing effective innings.

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On re-visitation of Sri Lanka, Perera hit a first-class double ton, at that point a 275-ball 336. He has been adequately on many occasions been demonstrating to receive central agreement; an all-inclusive role in the restricted overs sides.

The flourishing career

Perera hit his maiden ODI century in Mirpur in 2014 to help Sri Lanka complete a 3-0 whitewash over Bangladesh. He at that point pounded a 17-ball 50, Sri Lanka’s joint-quickest; against Pakistan in Pallekele in July 2015, to rise to Jayasuriya’s record.

One month later Perera had his Test debut chance against India in Colombo. He made twin half-centuries, turning out to be just the second Sri Lanka batsman to score two half-hundreds on debut. 

Perera’s prospering profession hit a hindrance in December 2015 when he was temporarily suspended from worldwide cricket by the ICC, in the wake of having failed a dope test. He had to return from Sri Lanka’s visit through New Zealand. Therefore missing a respective T20 arrangement in India, Asia Cup, and World T20. 

His situation seemed dreary when his underlying sample came positive for the performance improving medication, 19-Norandrostenedione. However, it developed more depressing when his B test returned indistinguishable outcomes. 

Perera had solid support from the Sri Lankan cricket board. However, and spent his very own significant amount of money in battling the WADA-endorsed lab’s discoveries. His mission to be cleared incorporated an outing to England for a polygraph test, a hair examination, and a urine test; just as significant coordination with his primary legal team, which was situated in the UK. 

This in the long run took care of when his name was cleared in May 2016. Finishing his suspension following five months out; the Qatar-based lab’s discoveries were considered “impractical” for “scientific and technical reasons” by an expert recruited by the ICC.

Isuru Udana biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

Udana is a gifted left-arm fast-bowling allrounder, whose assortment and variance of pace have seen him show up regularly for Sri Lanka’s T20 side. Fit for getting the ball off the seam, Udana has various slow ball skills up his sleeve. Including one out of the rear of his hand that has presented to him some accomplishment at the high level. He faced optimization into the Sri Lanka cricket players side for the 2009 World T20 in England. He played a part in Sri Lanka’s advancement to the final in that competition. In any case, he didn’t play the 2010 World T20; he has been to a great extent sink by the national selectors until mid-2017. 

While still a student, at DS Senanayake College, he joined Nondescripts CC. However even before he could speak to them in a domestic match he was chosen to play for Sri Lanka Under-20 Schools side in the progressing U-23 Division I youth competition. He was chosen to visit South Africa with Sri Lanka A group in August 2008; without having played a solitary first-class match. He was the main wicket-taker in the Inter-Provincial T20 competition in 2008-09; encouraging Wayamba to the title and a compartment in the Champions Twenty20 League.

Lahiru Thirimanne biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

An unflappable youthful talent with an incredible cover drive, Lahiru Thirimanne went to the worldwide scene profoundly respected by Sri Lanka’s cricket elite, with Aravinda de Silva most outstandingly among his bosses. An opener by notoriety, Thirimanne made his introduction in mid-2010 and earned inconsistent spots in the public side throughout the following two years, however, it was not until he was moved to the center order in 2012 that he uncovered the consistency that would make him a customary at the high level. 

A deliberate batsman, if on occasion a restricted one, Thirimanne has been a differentiating ally for Sri Lanka’s center request dashers in ODI cricket, hitting especially critical partnerships with Angelo Mathews to lift Sri Lanka in the clear. 

His strength has consistently been the longest form be that as it may, as proven by a first-class average of nearly 60 in his first full season for Ragama CC. Thirimanne couldn’t reproduce that form in his initial Tests as an opener, however summoned his best innings to date at no. 4, when he ventured off a plane 36 hours before the 2013 New Year Test to strike a shimmering 91 on the main day in Sydney. After ten days he hit a maiden international hundred in an ODI to take Sri Lanka to triumph in Adelaide.

Angelo Mathews biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

A vigorous batting method, pestering consistency with the ball, and physicality in the field, all set off by an imperturbable disposition; this is what makes Angelo Mathews one of Sri Lanka’s most valuable resources and a figure on which the group hangs numerous expectations. He has risen rapidly since procuring wide praise with an acrobatic save in the 2009 World Twenty20. In February 2013, became Sri Lanka’s youngest Test skipper at 25, in the wake of having been prepared for the post for a very long time. 

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In restricted overs cricket, Mathews’ overall aptitudes are practically vital. At the point when he pulled a quad in the World Cup semi-final in 2011, he constrained three changes to the XI that played in the last, as the group required equilibrium, he without any help conveyed. He started his international profession with aspirations of turning into a veritable allrounder, yet has since offered the power to his batting, and adequately plays as a specialist batsman in the Test side.

Road to captaincy

Frequently going to the wicket at No. 6, Mathews gives robustness to the lower-middle order, which has been a soft spot for Sri Lanka before his appearance. In ODIs, he has given two remarkable completions – against Australia in 2010, and Pakistan in 2012 – taking triumph with a radiant, supported attack. However, his best work has come in the Test design. In a remarkable 2014, in which he scored 1160 runs at an average of 77.33, Mathews’ best moment was the animating 160 at Headingley, which changed that match and saw Sri Lanka win their first Test arrangement in England (excluding the coincidental Test in 1998). 

Mathews’ arrangement to the captaincy has proclaimed a reestablished center around youth and advancement by the Sri Lanka selectors. Once a fruitful head of the St. Joseph’s College side and the Sri Lanka Under-19 group, Mathews faced accusation of introducing another period of Sri Lankan cricket.

Thisara Perera biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

A clamoring right-arm seamer and inconsistently powerful left-gave hitter, Thisara Perera has been in Sri Lanka’s short-design sides since 2010. Bowling is apparently Perera’s significant aptitude be that as it may. Frequently conveyed in the lower-middle order, he is likewise equipped for conveying incensed completions to an innings. Perera is especially serious on the turn, which has prompted his being utilized as a special hitter through the middle overs, yet he has on occasion additionally been frail to quality speed bowling. 

He is the sort of player for whom form in one order generally seeps into the other. Dropped for the restricted overs arrangement against South Africa in July 2014, yet thundered back in the accompanying ODI arrangement against Pakistan, getting his bowling and his hitting altogether. He struck 78 runs at a rate of 169.56 and guaranteed an arrangement with nine wickets at an average of 10.66. 

Perera has additionally done well with bat and ball on past visits to Australia and has regularly been at his best against India. Significantly pummeling the straight-six that finished Sri Lanka’s World T20 win in 2014. His later years have been under criticism by irregularity however Perera keeps on directing a spot in the side. He has hat-tricks in both ODIs and T20s. 

Perera’s side contributions

Perera started his tutoring at St Anthony’s, Wattala, before tolerating a grant to join St Joseph’s College. It ended up being a profitable move as he collaborated with Angelo Mathews and delivered numerous imperative exhibitions in the flourishing school’s cricket scene. Perera assumed a critical job in assisting his school break the hoodoo in the Battle of the Saints (against St Peters College) that kept going over 35 years. He got his maiden public call-up during Sri Lanka’s visit through India in 2009 as a crisis swap for Mathews. 

That immediately prompted an IPL contract, as he was purchased by Chennai Super Kings for $50,000. He has been one of the only handful Sri Lanka players to reliably discover work in the competition.

Kasun Rajitha biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

Unheard of before 2015, the main suspicion of right-arm seamer Kasun Rajitha’s latent capacity came during a three-dayer against the visiting Indians in August of that year. He took 5 for 68 on a zesty Khettarama deck in that match, excusing Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma in a solitary spell, before guaranteeing Kohli’s wicket in the subsequent innings also. 

Accomplishing apparent seam development at a sharp speed, and from a high delivery point, Rajitha ended up being a wicket-taking T20 bowler in the accompanying domestic season. He was the second-most elevated wicket-taker in the Super T20 Provincial competition, with 10 wickets in six matches. That exhibition procured him a global T20 debut; where he asserted two wickets in his first over, against India in Pune.

Avishka Fernando biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

An aggressive right-hander – however not without inclination for deft touch – Avishka Fernando knocked some people’s socks off while exhibiting St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, before following through on his way at the Under-19 level. 

Fernando was making centuries for his school’s first XI before he was 14-years of age and proceeded to assert himself as one of the school’s most productive batsmen, hitting more than 1000 runs in the 2015 season. He made a selection in the long-run for Sri Lanka’s age-group teams. Alongside making a ton in his second Youth ODI innings, hitting 127 from 103 balls against touring Australia Under 19s, in 2014. 

It was after his phenomenal school season that Fernando truly bloomed at the Under-19 level. He hit 95 from 96 balls in Sri Lanka’s triumph over England in the quarter-final of the 2016 Under-19 World Cup. Later in the year, he would hit two sequential hundreds against them again; this time in a bilateral arrangement in England. 

Those innings, which arrived in an uncommon series whitewash for Sri Lanka Under-19s, procured Fernando a call-up to the national ODI side for the arrangement against Australia, without having played any List A or first-class cricket.

Suranga Lakmal biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

A right-arm quick bowler, Suranga Lakmal was first spotted by Sri Lanka Cricket’s fast bowling trainers while still understudying at Debarawewa Central. They firmly observed his advancement to Richmond College and afterward to the Tamil Union group whom he speaks to in homegrown cricket. What dazzles the mentors about Lakmal was his height and capacity to get ricochet and swing at a young age. Regardless of his characteristic capacity, Lakmal had one major insufficiency in that he did not have the endurance to bowl long spells. On events he did, he consistently became sick. The absence of sustenance was very normal with quick bowlers coming from outside Colombo.

Not long after Lakmal was made into the institute, the mentors chipped away at building up his endurance. Great exhibitions with Sri Lanka A saw him break into the public ODI side. He is one of three players set apart for the future by Chandika Hathurusingha in 2008 when he was training for the A-side.

Dhananjaya de Silva biography – Sri Lanka cricket players

An in fact right top-order batsman from the southern ranges of the island, Dhananjaya de Silva momentarily grabbed the public selectors’ attention in 2015, at that point proceeded to have a decent domestic season that checked him out for more serious national obligation. De Silva has been the potential in Sri Lanka’s mid-year T20s against Pakistan, in 2015. However didn’t exactly prove that he was a T20 batsman, hitting 45 off 47 balls across two innings. What followed, however, was a determined blossoming. 

De Silva originally bested the batting graphs in the Super T20 Provincial Tournament in mid-2016; hitting 234 runs at a striking pace of 133, in six innings. Months after the fact, he was the star of Tamil Union’s first triumphant first-class crusade in quite a while, hitting 868 runs at 54.20, which highlighted an essential fourth-innings 121 in the match that secured his side the title. Unbelievably, however normally utilized as a part-time offspinner, de Silva was likewise his club’s best bowler that season, asserting 32 wickets at 14.23. 

Those numbers acquired him his first call-up to Sri Lanka’s Test crew – for the England visit in May and June 2016.

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