Happy Birthday, Dhananjaya de Silva! Sri Lankan all-rounder turns 25

Sri Lanka‘s promising all-rounder and future prospect Dhananjaya de Silva turns 25 today. Dhananjaya has shown signs of brilliance in the recent past. The all-rounder when promoted up the order against Australia in the ODI squad scored a half-century (74) in the fourth ODI. De Silva could be the answer to Sri Lankan middle-order batting woes if given ample time. The all-rounder is pretty handy with his right-arm offspin bowling. Not only ODIs but De Silva binds hope for Sri Lanka as he scored 126 and 65 in the third Test against Australia. It was quite a sight when he launched a counter-attack on Australian bowling attack including Mitchell Starc in fourth ODI despite the fall of wickets early on in the innings.

De Silva has played three Tests, six ODIs and two T20Is so far. He has 2 and 3 wickets in Tests and ODIs respectively. His Test average looks good though with 325 runs in six innings. His average clocked at 65 in Tests. He debuted for Sri Lanka in 2015 in T20I squad against Pakistan at Colombo. He came under spotlight in 2015 and that was the primary reason he was picked up in the T20I side.

De Silva has played for these teams so far– Badureliya Sports Club, Kandurata Maroons, Ragama Cricket Club, Sri Lanka A, Sri Lanka Under-19s. He has a decent First-Class record as well. However, he has not proved his mettle for Sri Lanka in bowling department despite spin-friendly pitches against Australia where Rangana Herath, Lakshan Sandakan and Dilruwan Perera wreaked havoc on Australian batsmen.