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- B.V.Swagath

Sri Lanka are fortunate to have some one like Kumar Sangakkara, who is as good as any top order batsman and is as good as any wicket keeper on his day. Sangakkara provides the extra edge to the Sri Lankan side with his double role as wicket keeper-specialist batsman. He may not be as dangerous as Adam Gilchrist, but Sangakkara may just be next to Gilchrist in the list of current wicket keepers-specialist batsmen. With Sangakkara in the team, Lanka always have the option of playing an extra bowler in their line up.

This left-hander is gifted with a good hand-eye co-ordination and picks up the line and length of the bowlers pretty early. Sangakkara is also a good timer, and also plays the big shots with ease. He entered the International arena at a young age of 22 in the Singer Triangular Series, 2000 in Sri Lanka. Romesh Kaluwitharana, the pocket size dynamo had to make his way out of the side to accommodate this talented youngster in the team. Sangakkara immediately made amends with a scintillating 85 in just his second ODI against South Africa. He was infact the Man of the Match in just his second ODI, something that is similar to Yuvraj Singh’s Man of the Match against Australia in his second ODI. Sangakkara had an impressive start in his very first tournament with scores that read as 35, 85, 36* and 43. He was given a place in the test squad during the same season against the touring South Africans. Sangakkara’s Test Career got going when Sri Lanka toured South Africa for a 3-Test Series. Sangakkara notched up two half centuries in the series. One of which was a 98 at Centurion, Sangakkara was asked to open in this innings. From that innings till today, Kumar Sangakkara has played some really good knocks in both formats of the game. At the same time, he has kept wickets in many matches, though Sri Lanka bring in Romesh Kaluwitharana once in a while to relieve Sangakkara.

Kumar Sangakkara also has two double centuries in his 40 Tests (till date of writing this article). One double century, 230 against Pakistan to be precise, won Sri Lanka the Asian Test Championship in 2002; the match was the final and was played at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. Another double century was almost a triple century as Sangakkara piled up 270 against the hapless and spineless Zimbabwe bowlers at Bulawayo in 2004. Sangakkara has scored almost 3000 Test runs at an average of 46 with 15 fifties and 5 hundreds. His ODI average is slightly less at 31 with over 2,700 runs in 111 matches. Sangakkara has scored 14 fifties and 3 hundreds in ODIs. In both formats of the game, he has over 100 dismissals as a wicket keeper. Keeping to the likes of Muralitharan isn’t an easy job at all, but Sangakkara has done reasonably well so far. Kumar Sangakkara is a true match winner and could well be Sri Lanka’s captain in the future.

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