Dasun Shanaka

A fine all-rounder, Dasun Shanaka, is known for his volatile style of batting in the middle-order and efficient medium-fast bowling. He made his way into the national side following his three-dimensional performances in domestic cricket, which caught the selector’s eye.

The Negombo-born all-rounder made his first-class debut playing for Sinhalese Sports Club against Lankan Sports Club on 27th January 2012. After a hard grind in domestic cricket, Shanaka was handed his maiden T20I call-up against Pakistan on 1st August 2015. 

Being an all-rounder, his batting inconsistencies continued to haunt him but with the bowl, he was like a master at work with all kinds of variations. Shanaka came into the limelight in a T20I match against Indian where he picked three decisive wickets of MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Hardik Pandya and also played some handy cameos with the bat down the order. Shanaka, being on-song, saw himself included in the 2016 T20 World Cup.

With the likes of Angelo Mathews, Isuru Udana, Dhananjaya da Silva in the squad,  he was juggling in and out of the squad multiple times for over three years. 

On one such occasion during a Test match against India in Pune, he was caught in a ball-tampering case and was fined 75 percent of his match fees. He bounced back even stronger and scored a splendid 65 runs off 38 balls against the Proteas in an ODI match.

In September 2019, when most of the senior Sri Lankan players backed out of the Pakistan series due to security concerns, he was named as the skipper for the touring side. A brilliant all-round performance leading a young bunch of Sri Lankans, led to their first-ever series victory and a clean sweep on Pakistani soil.

Along with his all-round capabilities and experience backing him, it won’t be surprising to see him leading the future Sri Lankan prospects, following the footsteps of Mathews.

(As of March 2021)