Chamika Karunaratne

Chamika Karunaratne is a fast-bowling allrounder who plays for Sri Lanka’s national team and represents Nondescripts Cricket Club domestically. Karunaratne has been on the fringes of Sri Lanka since his U-19 days. He might not be the bowler with tearaway pace but his ability to pick the correct length in the channel makes the seamer a hard opponent. 

Born in Colombo, Karunaratne comes from a sporting background. His father and brothers are all professional badminton players. The hearty pacer was also a junior national champion in javelin throw and also played badminton at the international level, before finding his peace at cricket. In 2013, he was picked for the Sri Lankan U-19 team to play two Youth Tests and three Youth ODIs. 

The all-rounder wasn’t picked for the 2014 U-19 World Cup, hence, decided to prove himself through domestic cricket. He made his first-class debut for Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club in the 2015–16 Premier League Tournament. The following season, the allrounder made his List-A and T20 debuts, before getting selected for the Emerging Teams Asia Cup in 2018.

After the 2018 season, there was no looking back for Karunaratne. In January 2019, he was named in the squad for the Test series against Australia Down Under. The bowling all-rounder made his Test debut at Canberra where he scalped Marnus Labuschagne’s wicket in the of his career. However, after that, he got bashing by the Australians and finished with the figures of 1 for 148. 

Karunaratne was named in the teams for the tours of South Africa and West Indies but wasn’t unfortunate to make it into the playing XIs then. In May 2021, the Sri Lankan was named to the squad for the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh. The promising all-rounder has shown a lot of promise and can be the answer for his national team in these transition times. 

(As of May 2021)