Kumar Sangakkara's debut in International Cricket

Kumar Sangakkara had a decent debut in his first ever outing for the Lankan lions. With consistent performances over the years, he has marked himself as one of the greatest wicket-keeper batsman ever in the history of cricket. He averages more than 58 in Test cricket and just over 40 in ODIs as well. He has played a crucial role in taking Sri Lanka into the finals of 5 major world tournaments in the last 7 years.

He is a very agile and athletic wicket-keeper and is also a very fit athlete. He keeps wickets for 50 overs and also plays long innings without any signs of weary batting at the top of the order, that is just a small display of his fitness. His focus and concentration takes him apart, and he has the ability to bat for long periods of time in Test cricket once he is settled. It is worth paying to watch him playing those drives and cuts.

Sanga started playing cricket for his school and was a regular part of his school team. He won many awards playing for his school. He knocked at the doors of the Sri Lankan team when he scored runs for Sri Lanka A on the tour of South Africa. He was selected for the first time in the national team for the triangular series in Sri Lanka where he made his debut against Pakistan on July 5, 2000 in which he scored 35 runs before unfortunately getting run out.

In this series he scored 199 runs at an average of 66. This performance with the bat secured his place for the ICC-Knock out trophy in Kenya later that year and also fetched him a Test cap on July 20, 2000 against the visiting South Africans. But he was not really performing up to the mark after this in ODIs, but his performces in Test cricket kept him in the team. Almost in every Test series away or home he was scoring at an average of near to 50 or even more. But still he was not consistent with the bat in ODIs apart from a few good series till 2003, but thereafter he picked it up from the ODI series against the touring Kangaroos in which he averaged 50 and he never looked back from there.

Sangakkara is one of those bunch of ever improving cricketers who got better and better as they grew older with their experience and persistant hard work. He was not really a natural wicket keeper early in his career but now he is not just a safe but rather a very good wicket keeper who can pull off some stunners with the gloves on.