Ajantha Mendis

Ajantha Mendis Biography

Ajantha Mendis is a Sri Lankan ‘mystery’ spinner who became an instant superstar when he cleaned a powerful Indian batting line-up out with a splendid spell of 6 for 13 in the final of Asia Cup in 2008. He possesses the ability to bowl off-break, leg-break, googly, top-spinner, flipper, and the middle-fingered carom ball. His variations proved to be too tricky to handle when he entered the Test arena and picked up 26 wickets in his maiden series, once again against India. This included 8 for 132 on Test debut.

His success in Sri Lanka's domestic circuit for Sri Lanka Army had made a lot of people notice of him; he picked up 68 wickets in just nine games at a mind-numbing bowling average of just 10.51 early in 2008. He was subsequently fast-tracked to the national team. It is his accuracy and stump-to-stump line that has had many batsmen in trouble. He raced away to 50 One-Day International (ODI) wickets in a mere 19 games, beating Ajit Agarkar’s long-standing record of doing it in 23 games.

He is the only bowler to have taken a six-wicket haul in T20Is. In fact, Mendis has taken two six-fors in T20Is. He took 6 for 16 against Australia at Pallekele in 2011, and then against Zimbabwe he finished with destructive figures of 6 for 8 in four overs (with two maidens).

Over the period of time though, Mendis has failed to live up to his expectations and has been on the fringes of selection of the national team and Sri Lanka have often overlooked him for new bowlers in Dilruwan Perera and Tharindu Kaushal.

Nikhil Popat

Ajantha Mendis Batting & Fielding Averages

Career	M	In	R	NO	HS	Avg	BF	SR	100s	50s	4s	6s	Ct	St
Test	19	19	213	6	78	16.38	455	46.81	0	1	25	1	2	0
ODIs	88	42	188	19	21*	8.173	263	71.48	0	0	16	2	15	0
T20s	39	8	8	5	4*	2.666	17	47.05	0	0	1	0	6	0
World Cup	6	1	0	1	0*	--	2	0.000	0	0	0	0	--	--

Ajantha Mendis Bowling Averages

Career	M	B	R	W	Avg	EC	SR	5WI	10WM	BBI	BBM
Test	19	4730	2434	70	34.77	3.087	67.	4	1	6/8	10/209
ODIs	88	4154	3324	152	21.86	4.801	27.32	3	0	6/8	6/8
T20s	39	885	952	66	14.42	6.454	13.40	2	0	6/8	6/8
World Cup	6	256	134	7	19.14	3.140	36.57	0	--	3/35	6/8

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