19 year old debutante Kamindu
19 year old debutante Kamindu Mendis proved the fact that truly skillful and naturally talented players don’t need endlessly gifted chances (at the cost of repeated series LOSSES for SL), to prove their worthiness & talent…. as seen with useless but highly overrated failures like; Kusal Mendis (50+ odis- Av in 20s),Sadeera Samarawickrema (6 ing @ 22 av), Kusal Perera (80+ odis Av in 20s), Dhanjaya de Silva (25+ Odis Av in 20s), Dhanushka Gunathilake (30+ odis av 30).

Like Kamindu,the most productive current Odi top order guy who scored
1,300+ runs @ 40 Av since 2017 with 2 x 100 & 7 x 50s /but discarded Opener Upul Tharanga (to slot in those stamped failures) showed his true class & skillful productiveness right from the beginning of his career.

From the Initial stage of his career @ 20 yrs Upul showed his class & natural abilities, becoming the Quickest SL batter to score 1,000 runs in 28 innings with 5 x 100 & 3 x 50 & became the Quickest SL batter to top 4,000 runs in 119 ings & 2nd quickest SL batter to score 5,000 runs before virtually halting his career for 3+ y @ 28 yrs.!

Since Kamindu is an all rounder blossomed from out of Colombo school , I wonder how long he would be allowed to continue his bright future under this lopsided current regime. .?

@Cricfanus@
We are now
@Cricfanus@

We are now focusing on up coming WC and not on spoon feeding the so called guys like Kusal Mendis already given and wasted 50 + odis (Almost 1/4 of UT’s career innings) to fail & struggling with averages in 20s. Even that is dwindling down progressively (12 Av in last 24 inngs) instead of improving.

Cricket is team game.! it is nonsense to say one man alone can win matches without support from the rest of the batters. This is true to even world’s top batters. Therefore don’t judge any player from the victories alone. Because no matter how good your performance is,
still you will loose the match if the rest of the guys collectively put up a poor show. Exactly this is what happening during the past couple of years in SL.

That is why despite Tharanga’s exceptional effort since come back in 2017, becoming one of the only 3 batters in the world to top 1,000 Odi runs in 2017 – 25 ing- 1011 runs @ 48 Av – 92 SR with 2 x 100 & 7 x 50+ couldn’t bring the deserved results. Simply that is not his fault & What else do you expect him to do as a batter to win matches? Even Lara or Sanga cannot change the results under such circumstances. So without following the facts & blaming him shows the foolishness our fans.

As an example, Just look at the series whitewash suffered vs Pk due to, SL batting failures among top 7 in that 5-odi series. This is what they managed from up to 5 ings (Chandimal 5- 41, Thisara 5-91, Dickwella 5-62, Milinda 5- 24, K Mendis 2-12, Sadeera 2-0, Kapu 1- 18).

They all collectively managed just 248 runs from 25 innings @ 9.92 Av in entire 5-odi series. Only Upul Tharanga fought hard trying to win matches 5 odis – 199 runs – 50 Av- 1 x 100+ & 1 x 50+). Can you expect him to win matches with this kind of batting unit.!

Tharanga became the first SL batsman to carry his bat out in an Odi match when he scored an unbeaten 112* out of his team’s score of 187 in the second match Vs Pak. Tharanga fought hard until the end to bring a victory for SL, but unfortunately ran out of partners & sadly he was stranded without partners at the end just short of few more runs. There wasn’t a single batter who could at least keep one end intact.!

Upul contributed 59.89 percent of team’s total which was only the 2nd highest after Australian Damian Martyn’s innings of 116 not out in a total of 191 which contributed 60.73 of his team’s total. Overall, Tharanga became only the 11 th batsman to achieve the feat in ODIs (50 overs). THIS SPEAKS FOR THE SINGLE HANDED EFFORT THAT HE HAD PUT TO AT LEAST AVOID THAT WHITEWASH.! I don’t think anyone in SL Odi history had put up such a massive effort single handedly!
This was the story in SA whitewash & in India as well. SO DO YOU STILL EXPECT HIM TO WIN MATCHES under such circumstances?

To win a match you essentially need the team contribution. Therefore to win a MoM award you need that back up for sure. Without that basic support, no matter how extra ordinarily good your effort is; you end up in the losing side without getting the deserved MoM!

Likewise, one of the 3 MoMs Mendis won was in Zmb for his 57 score, but Tharanga batting lower down at No5 made the winning runs scoring unbeaten 57* ensuring the Victory… but the MoM was given to Mendis.

Ie: Tharanga should have definitely won at least 4 more MoM awards if the rest of the batters didn’t fell like nine pins without any significant contribution (in addition to the Mom award he got in 2018 triangular decider in BD) for his record making performances Vs Pak unbeaten 112* / his 119 (90b @ 132 SR) in SA / his 95 (82 b @ 116 SR) in India & probably for his unbeaten 79* ( 73 b @ 109 SR) as well, that got stranded without partners batting lower at No4 due to wasting 25 overs by top 3 batters going for individual scores at SR in 70s on (that could have easily been extended to match wining 100 if he was allowed to Open)!

Compare the stats since 2017 Jan to find the incomparably vast difference between performances of these two players since Jan 2017:

– THARANGA: 38 ings – 1,315 runs @ 40 Av- 87 SR –2 x100+ /7 x 50+ (1 Mom award)

– K MENDIS: 35 ings – 761 runs @ 22 Av -80 SR – 1 x 100 / 4 x 50+ (1 Mom award)

So WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?

No need to say, Tharanga is clearly in a well above orbit that Mendis could only dream of.! As long as Tharanga keep up his fitness & batting productivity (not judged by mere 8 innings) he has at least 3-4 more year ahead of him at 33 yrs (if not cut his throat) & his experience & services cannot be missed in upcoming WC.!

BTW can you name a single batter in SL history that suffered straight 3 yrs axing just after scoring 5,000 in 168 ings with 13 tons performance above most of our later became legends in runs & tons as pointed out by someone in an above post?

@ Cricexp – NOT
@ Cricexp – NOT REALLY.!

Occasionally received 3 MoM awards playing 50 Odis over 3 yrs yet struggling with Average in 20s doesn’t make him a choice over a guy like Tharanga.

To win a match you essentially need the team contribution. Therefore to win a MoM award you need that back up for sure. Without that support, no matter how extra ordinarily good your effort is; you end up in the losing side without getting the deserved MoM!

Likewise, one of the 3 MoMs Mendis won was in Zmb for his 57 score, but Tharanga batting lower down at No5 made the winning runs scoring unbeaten 57* ensuring the Victory… but the MoM was given to Mendis.

Ie: Tharanga should have definitely won at least 4 more MoM awards if the rest of the batters didn’t fell like nine pins without any significant contribution (in addition to the Mom award he got in 2018 triangular decider in BD) for his record making performances Vs Pak unbeaten 112* / his 119 (90b @ 132 SR) in SA / his 95 (82 b @ 116 SR) in India & probably for his unbeaten 79* ( 73 b @ 109 SR) as well, that got stranded without partners batting lower at No4 due to wasting 25 overs by top 3 batters going for individual scores at SR in 70s on (that could have easily been extended to match wining 100 if he was allowed to Open)!

Compare the stats since 2017 Jan to find the incomparably vast difference between performances of these two players since Jan 2017:

– THARANGA: 38 ings – 1,315 runs @ 40 Av- 87 SR –2 x100+ /7 x 50+ (1 Mom award)

– K MENDIS: 35 ings – 761 runs @ 22 Av -80 SR – 1 x 100 / 4 x 50+ (1 Mom award)

So WHERE IS THE JUSTICE?

No need to say, Tharanga is clearly in a well above orbit that Mendis could only dream of.!

There are serious question to
There are serious question to be asked when looking at the sequence of grave misdoings by this highly paid, professionally responsible authority… WHY ALL these Ridiculous Decisions at a crucial time?

Is this the time to constantly pamper a proven failure Kusal Mendis, who was given 24 Odis since his last 50 score came 1.5 years ago?

Mendis had already wasted 24 odis since then to to collect a dismal 271 runs for SL at astonishingly LOW 12.36 AVERAGE & 72 SR! Yet he was sent as Opener in the Vital 2 matches in Asia Cup to cause the early exit, WHY?

Despite Averaging 0 in previous series (Asia Cup), Tharanga was benched and grabbed Mendis not even a part of original squad… to score a third consecutive BLOB & 5 runs wasting 14 balls to give away the series to England, WHY?

What authority does anyone have to enforce such highly destructive acts at crucial points, if really intends to end the loosing streak?

Or prime intention is to address the current need of finding the best proven XI for upcoming WC (rather than pampering failures already played more than 50 odis, yet struggling with day by day dwindling averages in the 20s ?

Entrusting the Best Proven guys in our limited resources (Tharanga , Mathews, Dickwella, Thisara & now Shanaka) isn’t the way forward to face the WC?

How funny…. those pseudos
How funny…. those pseudos of CricexPORT at it again LoL. All this fool could do is Trying to hide his shame with lame statements. These inappropriate attempts would only highlight his desperation & inability to disprove any of my comments. This is clear to anyone following the thread.

Who cares about the pools of
Who cares about the pools of fools, who is not capable of anything other than floating & pooping on every legitimate comment or poster disproving their worthless 2cents.

Stormy – To win matches or
Stormy – To win matches or top 300 runs, What they should have done much earlier was SHEDDING the dead weights (Selectors’/Coach’s bunnies) like Kusal Mendis, Thirimanne & even Chandimal (in SA 3 ings – 62 runs @ 20 Av – 53 SR.!!! / Vs Pk 5 ings – 41 runs @ 8 Av – 47 SR.!!! -/ ICC-CT – 2 ing – 12 runs @ 6 Av – 52 SR.!!!)

@ Stormy –
Don’t make
@ Stormy –

Don’t make foolish comments on stupid assumptions man.

How can you compare our best ODI batter since 2016, Upul Tharanga Who had scored the Most runs (10 innings lesser than Mendis) and Highest Average @ 3rd highest Strike Rate among all (who had scored a minimum 250 runs)

Tharanga had maintained the BEST overall record among all No 1-4 SL batters 1309 runs @ 42.22 Average & 88 SR maintained over 36 Odi ings.!!!!

How can you compare this with anyone in the side let alone the useless slow-going bottleneck like Chandimal (71 SR)??

The performance rankings of SL batters @ No1-4 Since 2016:

WU Tharanga – 36 – 1309 – 42.22 Av- 88 SR -2×100/ 7×50
LD Chandimal- 25 – 906 – 39.39 Av- 71 SR – 2×100/ 7×50
DM de Silva – 8 – 272 – 38.85 Av- 84 SR – 3×50
N Dickwella – 34 – 1172 – 34.47 Av- 90 SR – 2×100 / 6×50
Thirimanne -10 – 334 – 33.40 Av -65 SR – 4×50
Gunathilaka- 28 – 855 – 31.66 Av -84 SR – 1×100 /6 x 50
MDKJ Perera – 23 – 675 – 30.68 Av -94 SR – 1×100 /3 x 50
BKG Mendis – 46 – 1315 – 29.88 Av -85.27 – 1×100 /11 x 50

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?batting_positionmax1=4;batting_positionval1=batting_position;class=2;filter=advanced;orderby=batting_average;qualmin1=250;qualval1=runs;spanmin1=01+Jan+2016;spanval1=span;team=8;template=results;type=batting

Pl DON’T MAKE Lopsided remarks like this.. just because you have no vision. This guy UT’s Odi record since 2016 is par with world class standard top order batters in odis. Don’t blame him for the sins of others who couldn’t even survive long enough to avoid him getting stranded at the end in at least 5 innings (one is a SL record for carrying the bat throughout the inning as Opener)or make use of those upfront blistering contributions to top 300 as seen in SA.

There is a legitimate reason
There is a legitimate reason for such vibrant support.

None other player was constantly subjected to such unwarranted suppression and hogwash criticism as much as UpulT in our Cricket history. So, naturally any open-minded person who admit that fact would support against those misdoings.

Just look at this blog thread alone, is there a single opposer blabbering against it with rubbish, could come up with any legitimate point to deny the blog article content or positive comments? No I don’t see any!

You are right, everyone has the right to express their Opinion, but no one is entitle to suppress them. If it becomes a thorn in the eye & getting desperately agitated, when unable to counter any of those facts, the simplest thing they could do is shut up and getaway from the blog. LoL

Stormy –
the point here is
Stormy –
the point here is from the last 5 matches Tharanga & Dikka got the chance to APPEAR AS OPENERS (vs SA) after their superb display of such stands in 2017 (but disrupted by selectors), We WON 2 back to back odis with their superb start going above 6 RPO in first ten, to top 50+ two consecutive Opening stands!

The Question is why they disrupted that combination again for asia cup to put Kusal Mendis?