Published: Jul 31, 2016, 08:00 AM (IST)
Edited: Jul 31, 2016, 04:35 PM (IST)
Kusal Mendis played a remarkable innings in the first Test against Australia at Palekelle. His 176 was crucial in ensuring that Sri Lanka had enough on the board to defend. Mendis is still young to international cricket. In fact, he has played just a handful of First-Class matches. He, however, rose to the challenge on a tough wicket to guide his team to a historic win. With Sri Lanka still trying to cope after the retirement of big guns such as Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, Mendis’ innings comes as a major boost for the islanders. He will only go from strength to strength from here. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Sri Lanka vs Australia, 1st Test at Pallekele
Skipper Angelo Mathews and the entire Sri Lankan team were under the pump after a disastrous show in England. Mendis got off to a good start in most games, but just could not convert them into big scores. He comes across as a busy player, who likes to keep the scoreboard ticking and at the same time give the good ball its due respect.
He was up against the quality of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and not surprisingly, struggled against them, like many have in the past. Even Chris Woakes came into his own in that series. But Mendis played a couple of gritty innings on that tour. But, it was not enough.
It was, however, encouraging to see Sri Lanka stick with him for three out of the four Tests, showing that they have faith in this young talent. READ: Sri Lanka beat Australia by 106 runs in 1st Test at Pallekele
Mendis, in his short career, has opened as well as played at No. 4 for Sri Lanka.
His 176, as a matter of fact, came when he batted at No. 4. It is highly likely that he will return to his No. 3 position in the following games to come, which was occupied for years by Sangakkara, where he scored 11,679 runs out of 12,400 career runs. Another Sri Lanka legend Jayawardene, who followed Sangakkara at No. 4, scored 9,509 runs in that position out of 11, 814 career runs. Matching or surpassing these numbers will take some doing, but one has to start from somewhere.
Mendis at No. 3 and Dinesh Chandimal at 4 could be the ones who can strive to emulate what Sangakkara and Jayawardene in those positions.
It will not be surprising if Sri Lanka play another specialist wicketkeeper and let Chandimal concentrate only on his batting. They have Kusal Perera, who has played three out of his five Tests as a wicketkeeper. It will not be the worst idea to hand over the wicketkeeping gloves to him. READ: Angelo Mathews heaps praise on Kusal Mendis following Sri Lanka’s win over Australia in 1st Test
At 21, Mendis is certainly a bright prospect for Sri Lanka. At such a young age, he has toured New Zealand and England, which are not particularly easy places to tour. He is now up against Australia, who are No. 1 team in the world. Mendis will surely emerge out of all this as a better player, which may take Sri Lanka to their new era.
(Pramod Ananth is a reporter at Cricketcountry.com. He is a sport enthusiast and a keen observer of cricket, the contests, and its personalities. When not tracking cricket, he follows the world’s soccer leagues and is somewhat partial towards Liverpool. His Twitter handle is @pramz)
