Dimuth Karunaratne

A compact opening batsman, Dimuth Karunaratne is emerging as the cream of the young crop. The southpaw's first tryst with fame arrived when he cracked 131 against St. Peter's college to become the highest individual scorer for the Josephians, going past the previous best of 114 not out held by Fred Perera since 1934. Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera also featured in that match.

Notably, Karunaratne attended the famous St. Joseph's college in Colombo which has supplied many top Sri Lankan cricketers, including Chaminda Vaas. Karunaratne let his bat do the talking in the domestic circuit and steadily progressed through the Under -19 level. Impressed with the young batsman, the selectors picked him for the series against England and Scotland. Having registered scores of 4 and 60, he showcased glimpses of his flourishing potential.

Karunaratne also found himself in Sri Lanka's Test squad for the tour of South Africa at the close of 2011, although he did not make the playing XI in any of those encounters. He was a regular traveller until the much-awaited Test debut materialised in 2013 when he was given the nod to partner Tharanga Paranavitana, coming in for the injured Tillakaratne Dilshan, against New Zealand in Galle. Beset with nervousness, Karunaratne fell for a duck in his first Test innings. However, he pulled his socks up and made a fluent, run-a-ball 60 in the second essay as Sri Lanka surged to a thumping 10-wicket win.

Karunaratne's maiden Test century came against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval on December 28, 2014, where he scored a gritty 152 off 363 balls in the second match. The 2015 World Cup that followed wasn't a pleasant experience, where a hand fracture cut short a promising start. His focus majorly since then has been in Tests.

He stamped his authority at the top of the order ever since, first with a century against Pakistan and soon followed it up with a mammoth 186 against the touring West Indies. Despite a minor blip against Australia in Sri Lanka's historic 3-0 sweep, where Karunaratne got five single-digit scores in six innings, with Mitchell Starc having turned him into his bunny, he came back hard against Zimbabwe, grabbing the Man of the Series.

He took his form into the UAE, Pakistan's fortress. In Sri Lanka's first ever Day-Night Test, he notched up his career-best score of 196, thus becoming the first Sri Lankan to get to the landmarks of 50, 100 and 150 in a D/N Test. He played a stellar role in routing Pakistan and breaching their long unbeaten series record in the Middle-East. It thus comes as no surprise that he ended 2017 as one of the highest run-getters in the year.

World Cup through the years
The newest surprise coronation in Sri Lankan cricket, Dimuth, had his 2015 World Cup campaign cut short by a fractured hand sustained at practice midway through the tournament. He was part of the middle-order in the four games he played in, with middling scores in the couple of matches in which he got to bat, before injury forced the selectors to replace him with Kusal Perera. That match against England, ironically, remains his last ODI. And now, returning back to the fold after four years presumably as an opener and in the role of a skipper as well, he'd be hoping to translate his Test success in helping Sri Lanka who seem to be at their lowest point of confidence and continuity in the last two decades.

World Cup 2019:

Life has been wavy for the southpaw as he was handed ODI captaincy out of nowhere during the World Cup but Dimuth did well enough to ensure all is not lost for SL. Sri Lanka were handed a shellacking in their first game of the tournament but gradually got better as the tournament progressed. Two of their games were rained out and they managed to beat England, the eventual champions. Dimuth personally tallied 222 runs from 7 games and along with Kusal Perera helped Lanka get off to some really quick starts.

But beyond the WC there will be expectations from the left-hander as the Sri Lankan longs for a fresh lease of air.

Written by Kumar Abhisekh Das