Kusal Mendis is conjuring World Cup magic, one game at a time

Kusal Mendis, in his eight-year international career, has often been a divisive figure. To most, his numbers are uninspiring. He averages less than 40 in Tests, less than 35 in ODIs, and less than 25 in T20Is. Consistency, as you might have guessed by now, is not his greatest virtue.

For some, though, the perception is different. He has long been Sri Lanka’s blue-eyed poster boy across formats. A batter capable of deciding games single-handedly, but someone who has not quite gotten it right for a prolonged period.

Throughout it all, there has remained a belief that Mendis will, at some stage in his career, deliver on the vast promise – a promise that he has shown ever since he was a teenager and was leading the Sri Lankan U-19 side.

Whenever he failed, however, that belief was tested to the hilt. In some quarters, there were murmurs that he was the best thing to happen to Sri Lankan cricket, and also a part of the problem that has engulfed them in the recent past.

On his day, he would seem unstoppable, shoulder-to-shoulder with the best this planet has to offer. On other occasions, an ordinary batter who would keep finding ways to get out.

Luckily for Sri Lanka, and for those who have always trusted in Mendis, the former has been the dominant theme over the past month or so. And that, just because of how flamboyant he can be, just because of how effortless he can make things look, means that the world has been gorging on his genius.

On the grandest stage of them all, no less.

In two innings at the World Cup, Mendis has scored 198 runs, which might not stand out, considering there have been players in the past who have scored back-to-back hundreds. Those runs, though, have come at a strike rate of 166.38, and that is what has made everyone sit up and take notice.

What makes it even more incredible is that these runs have come against Pakistan and South Africa – two top-quality bowling attacks. Mendis, however, has not flinched, even against the best these two nations have had to offer.

If anything, he has relished it, embraced it, and used the challenge to tell everyone just how good he is, and how he is perhaps becoming the batter Sri Lanka always thought he would become.

Against South Africa, the Lankans had a mountain to climb – a 429-run mountain to be precise. It is a testament to Mendis that, at one stage, they seemed they would pull off the improbable.

He hit eight sixes in a 42-ball 76 – all of which came inside the powerplay, by the way. There were strokes all around the dial too. There were slashes over point, lofted square drives over that same region, pulls that accessed the arc from fine leg to deep mid-wicket, and an audacious scoop off Marco Jansen that would have made anyone who watched it, gasp in awe.

Kusal Mendis scored a 65-ball hundred against Pakistan

Against Pakistan, Mendis, having walked out early, imposed himself against Shaheen Shah Afridi, the Men in Green's premier pacer. He hit the speedster for a boundary off his fifth ball and then smashed him for a four and a six in the fifth over.

Mendis was not done, though. In the 25th over, he creamed Shaheen for three fours, all while bullishly showing off his awesome repertoire of strokes. And while staring down Pakistan’s bowling lynchpin in the eye, en route to a 65-ball World Cup hundred - the fastest for a Sri Lankan batter at the men's ODI World Cup.

That is what differentiates the right-hander from a lot of other batters. Yes, they might be more consistent, and they might have scored more runs than him in the format. But when Mendis gets going, he does not care who is bowling. If he has decided a ball has to go, it goes. It could be Shaheen. It could be Haris Rauf. It could be Kagiso Rabada. It does not matter.

In a nutshell, that could be why this World Cup might go down as Mendis’ World Cup. Of course, these are massive words to back up, and there is nothing in his ODI career that suggests he can continue in this vein across seven more games (at least).

Just look at any of the shots (or the innings) he has produced so far, and you will be obliged to feel that this is a different version of Mendis – a version wherein he is just as cavalier, fearless, and skillful, but also good enough to keep executing those outlandish strokes on a far more regular basis.

This, of course, bodes very well for Sri Lanka as they look to make a splash at a World Cup in the subcontinent. The last time the World Cup was held on these shores, they made the final, remember?

If they are to scale those heights again, Mendis has to play a role, and a starring role at that. Not just because Sri Lanka need every little run they can get, especially in the absence of Wanindu Hasaranga. But because Mendis can do what perhaps no one else in the Sri Lankan batting unit can – win games of cricket single-handedly, and from almost any position.

Those who have stuck by him, have done so all along because they knew what he could become one day. A batter who would puff out his chest, and bat as if he owned the place.

That day seems to have come.

Mendis is conjuring World Cup magic, one game at a time. And while it would be a bit of a shame if he, after all this build-up, does not get going in the next few matches, it will take nothing away from the fact that he has truly lit up this World Cup.

So much so that the anger of him not going on and making this a mega run-scoring tournament, would give way to gratefulness that you were able to witness his genius, not once but twice.