twenty2025

[twenty2025]

All Time Sri Lanka Under 19 Team

Sri Lanka school cricket has been hailed as the best school cricket system. Even though so far, Sri Lanka did not win a youth silverware, Sri Lanka produced remarkable cricketers from U19 set up.

This is possible All Time Sri Lankan U19 Team

Openers

Avishka Fernando

The highest youth ODI run getter for Sri Lanka. He scored 1379 youth ODI runs during his illustrious youth career.

Ian Daniel

Anyone watched or followed Youth World Cup 2000 would say, Daniel was the pick of Sri Lankan team. He ended as highest run getter in 2000 youth world cup.

Top Middle Order

Pradeep Hewage

He was picked as potential international star in making. He was the highest run getter in 1998 youth world cup. He posses leadership capabilities too. In this exclusive list, he would be picked as the captain.

Bhanuka Rajapaksa

Sanath Jayasuriya equivalent in U19 cricket. He was earmarked by many as potential successor to Sanath Jayasuriya. He had terrific world cup in 2010. His 154 (111) vs Australia was currently 2nd highest individual score for Sri Lanka U19s.

Nipun Dhananjaya

Only 3 players passed 1000 Youth ODI runs for Sri Lanka. Dhananjaya was the latest to join the club. An elegant left handed batsman and led Sri Lanka U19s during 2020 youth world cup.

Lower Middle Order

Angelo Mathews

A product of St. Joseph's College, Colombo 10. A naturally gifted player. Probably the most successful Sri Lankan U19 star at international level.

Dinesh Chandimal (WK)

Most dismissals for U19 career for Sri Lanka holds by Chandimal. A stroke maker during his early days. He has tough competition to all time XI as Kusal Janith Perera, Prasanna Jayawardene and Niroshan Dickwella all did well during their U19 careers.

Farveez Maharoof

The batting all rounder. He led Sri Lanka in 2004 youth world cup. A genuine all rounder who can bat anywhere.

Bowlers

Sachith Pathirana

The highest U19 wicket taker for Sri Lanka U19s. Product of Trinity College, Kandy. He is currently working as spin bowling coach for U19 team.

Chathura Peiris

The highest pace bowling wicket taker. He is not the most fastest but he knew how to take wickets. A handy batsman, down the order as well.

Nipun Ransika

Picked based on potential. He bowls fast. Need proper coaching to progress.

[twenty2025]

Review of Sri Lanka's tour of Zimbabwe

Sri Lanka toured Zimbabwe after 3 years gap. Last time, Sri Lanka toured there was in 2016 when visitors won the series 2-0. This was an ideal opportunity for Sri Lanka to test and learn to build a solid test team for 2020 and prepare for upcoming high pressure series against England at home.

However, end of the series, still crucial issues were unanswered.

Batting

Angelo Mathews' 200* was the highlight of the series. This was the first double century after a gap of 5 years. Last time, a Sri Lankan scored a double century was in 2015 by Kumar Sangakkara against New Zealand.

Mathews was also the highest run scorer of the series with 277 runs. He averaged 138.50 during his 3 innings but his strike rate was below 40 was a concern.

The major plus point during the tour was Oshada Fernando settling in as the support opener for Dimuth Karunaratne. Despite his modest returns with the bat, he showed he is capable of doing better. However, to remain in the side for long, he needs more than pretty 40s.

On the other side, Dimuth continued to struggle in this series. Now, he has not scored a 50+ score for last 6 innings. He usually scores a 50+ score for every 3.87 innings.

We observed Dhananjaya de Silva and Niroshan Dickwella keep throwing their wickets away during this series as well. If Sri Lanka wants to improve, these two players, who bats at 6 and 7 need to step up and take the responsibility of closing games.

Dinesh Chandimal did nothing of note. But he has to keep in mind that because of him, a player who scored a 153* warming the bench.

Finally, Kusal Mendis scored another fine century. Because of his 116* in the 2nd test, Sri Lanka was able to finish the tour on high. This century was much needed for his career as this was his 1st century since his 141* vs New Zealand in late 2018. That innings was 18 innings ago as well.

Since his debut, no one else scored more centuries than Kusal Mendis for Sri Lanka and during the same period only Dimuth Karunaratne scored more runs than Kusal. Therefore, it is clear that Kusal Mendis is a vital player for Sri Lanka in test cricket.

Most Test Runs since the debut of Kusal Mendis

Dimuth Karunaratne 3067

Kusal Mendis 2955

Dinesh Chandimal 2271

Most Test Centuries since the debut of Kusal Mendis

Kusal Mendis 7

Dinesh Chandimal 6

Dhananjaya de Silva 6

Dimuth Karunaratne 6

Bowling

Lasith Embuldeniya was the highest wicket taker of the series with 13 scalps. His 5-114 in the first test was pivotal to win that game. However, he should carefully look at his economy rate (3.45) which was tad higher than Zimbabwe's run rate (2.74).

The usual unsung hero was Suranga Lakmal. During the series he completed his 150th test wicket. Only Chaminda Vaas achieved that feat before him for Sri Lanka.

During the series Lakmal took only 10 wickets but he was most economical bowler of the series. He conceded only 1.73 RPO and 36% of his overs were maidens.

Most Test Wickets for Sri Lanka

Muttiah Muralitharan 795

Rangana Herath 433

Chaminda Vaas 355

Dilruwan Perera 156

Suranga Lakmal 151

Sri Lanka employed 3:1 combination for the series despite historically Sri Lanka prefers 2:2 combination. However, the ploy was not worked as planned as the 3rd seaming option was not effectively worked in both tests. Especially, in the 2nd test, they could have used Lakshan Sandakan.

Lahiru Kumara provided much needed sting to the bowling. However, similar to Embuldeniya, he tends to leak runs. But we believe he is one bowler who can seriously trouble good batsmen.

Another highlight was Sri Lankan bowlers earned 47 maidens in the 1st innings of the 1st test which was the highest maidens earned by Sri Lankan bowlers during last 5 years. Previous best was 37 maidens against Australia at Pallekale in 2016.

Overall Result

Finally, Sri Lanka did modestly successful tour to Zimbabwe. We give them 2.5/5 for this tour. But the bigger challenge would be to face England at home. England comes with good record against Sri Lanka as they won in Sri Lanka 3-0 last time.