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These are the innings that jump out when you scroll through the list of Kamindu Mendis scores: 12 off 25 at Old Trafford, 4 off 5 at Lord’s, and 9 off 17 at Chattogram.
These are the only innings in which he has failed to reach 50 out of eleven Test knocks. Now, he has reached hundreds four times out of the eight times he has hit a half-century. It’s reasonable to have concerns if you’ve followed Sri Lanka’s men’s cricket team for the past ten years. These could consist of, but are not restricted to:
How is he doing this?
Is this even allowed for a Sri Lanka batter?
How deep into a fever dream am I?
Apologies to nearly every other batter who has made their debut since 2010, but Sri Lanka simply does not provide these kinds of starts. Even the finest-case scenarios go something like this: they arrive in a storm of domestic form, establish themselves right away with a century or a back-against-the-wall fifty, or they get a respectable run in the side based on potential.
The average then starts to decline, perhaps plunging into the 30s after leaving their 50s. The subsequent group of selectors, seduced by the newer, shiny object, removes them from the team. If our person works hard enough and a spot comes up, and the gods reward his work ethic, he can return to the highest level of domestic cricket or the Sri Lanka A squad.
Now the most productive opener for Sri Lanka, Dimuth Karunaratne had such a terrible season in 2016 that he was sidelined for several months. In 2014, Dinesh Chandimal’s performance against the bouncer was so terrible that, in the midst of a Test series, top selector Sanath Jayasuriya relegated him back to the A squad. Going back a generation, players like TM Dilshan and Thilan Samaraweera also had extended periods away from the Test team, as did Kusal Mendis and Lahiru Thirimanne.
All of which is to argue that Kamindu’s current actions are not technically natural. Even in a global setting, it is abnormal. If you can score 748 runs in 10 innings at an average of 83.11 and a strike rate of 65.32 in your first official year of Test cricket, you’re already a one-percenter (Kamindu made 61 on his debut against Australia two years ago, was left out when the more experienced batter he replaced returned to the XI, and only managed a respectable run this year). You’re in even rarer air when you consider that you’re a graduate of the current domestic system in Sri Lanka.
The individual was haughty versus New Zealand on the first day of play. He, like every batsman who faced him, was concerned by the bounce of Will O’Rourke (if we’re offering advice on which cricketers you should get into early, there’s another one). However, he was the least bothered when the struggle was intense, either side of lunch, tossing him off the pad and cutting him through point.
In the evening, as he approached his centenary, Kamindu found himself a defeated negotiator for O’Rourke’s rockets, a Jedi master deflecting a tough Padawan’s enquiries. He even performed an O’Rourke maiden at one point without showing any signs of nervousness.
In his sixth Test, Kamindu seems to know instinctively the kind of batting knowledge that highly experienced batsmen want to impart to the newcomers to the team. On 21, he was dropped while trying to sweep, but he didn’t seem even slightly disturbed, just as he stayed calm following numerous plays and misses on a hot day one deck.
In his sixth Test, Kamindu seems to know instinctively the kind of batting knowledge that highly experienced batsmen want to impart to the newcomers to the team. On 21, he was dropped while trying to sweep, but he didn’t seem even slightly disturbed, just as he stayed calm following numerous plays and misses on a hot day one deck.