Thilan Thushara

Thilan Thushara came in as a left-arm pacer with deceptive quick-arm action. He was a product of BCCSL's Fast Bowling Unit who was fast-tracked due to his seam position, accuracy, and ability to swing the ball both ways. 

Initially, the pacer was picked for the tour of South Africa in 2003 but had to wait for a year or so to make his debut. Thushara made his Test debut against West Indies in 2003 but failed to impress and then failed to make the Test or ODI squad for the England tour later in the year. Hence, got sidelined from the national selections for the next five years.

Thushara went back to the grind of domestic cricket to prove his worth and returned as a bowling all-rounder who would take any bowler out of the park. In 2008, the southpaw was the leading wicket-taker in the Inter-provincial limited-overs joint champs, which led to his national selection. 

The southpaw returned to the longest format to take his maiden fifer against West Indies and then earned the Sri Lankan caps for both the shorter formats, later that year. Post-Chaminda Vaas’ retirement, Thushara was taunted to be Sri Lanka’s leader of the pact and he formed a potent force along with Nuwan Kulasekara. 

His emergence and miraculous performance at the international stage meant an IPL contract wasn’t too far. The Sri Lankan was picked by Chennai Super Kings for the 2009 edition of the Indian Premier League for USD 140000. The pacer donned the Yellow jersey for two seasons to play six IPL games and bagged eight wickets in them. 

However, the promising speedster then saw a downhill in his career. Thushara started getting injuries that led him to lose his consistency and soon got dropped for the national side after playing 10 Tests, 38 ODIs, six T20Is to scalp 85 international wickets.

(As of April 2021)