Sanath Jayasuriya's debut in International Cricket

Sanath Jayasuriya

Here, we will take a look at Sanath Jayasuriya’s debut in international cricket. The swashbuckling batsman has been a delight to watch on the ptich as he goes about his business with extraordinary ease and power to set up some massive totals for the Sri Lankan team over the years. Having an almost Sehwag-esque type of play, Jayasuriya rarely differentiated between the varied formats of the game, stroking every ball with the same power to the fence. This extraordinary hand-eye coordination was a thing to gawk upon and many people have tried to replicate it over the years. But it’s an extreme rarity that people will have knowledge about the fact that such a batsman would start off his career being a slow-left arm bowler first.

Giving consistent bowling performances in first-class cricket, Jayasuriya was beginning to become a specialist bowler rather than a batsman. But his debut hundred for Sri Lanka B never left the selctors’ eyes and, along with these consistent performances with the ball, he was called up to the Sri Lankan squad for the Benson and Hedges series against Australia in 1989/90.

Captained by Arjuna Ranatunga, the batting stalwart didn’t get a chance to bowl and succumbed under pressure with the bat, scoring a measly score of 3 and, ultimately, Sri Lanka went on to lose the match by 30 runs. But Ranatunga never lost his faith in the man, as Jayasuriya went on a lowly average of 30 runs per match for the next four years. Jayasuriya repaid his captain in style as he became the man of the match for his epic performance with the ball against England in the 2nd ODI in Moratuwa of England’s tour of Sri Lanka in 1993, his figures being 9.5-0-29-6.

His confidence rose to alarming heights and he started giving more attention to his batting, amassing a total of 13430 runs in ODIs and 6973 runs in Tests. But he never gave up on his bowling too as his deceiving pace continued to baffle many, scalping 323 wickets in ODIs and 98 wickets in Tests. This all-round performance has earned him his name in history books as being one of the most reliable players that the Lankan subcontinent has ever produced.