His Old Trafford hundred is just the biggest announcement of his all-round talent
Andrew Fidel Fernando26-Aug-2024If spin bowling had a party, Sri Lanka would be the dude turning up in neon shades, sequined shirt unbuttoned halfway, and technicolour sneakers. Sri Lanka spinners have only really been good in the last 30 years, but right through those three decades, they have peacocked like no spinners have peacocked before.Carrom balls? Check the fridge, it’s crammed with ’em. Seam-up arm balls? Over there, crack one open. Two-finger googlies? Of course. Sliders with underspin? Sure. Huge-turning offbreaks? We’re offended you’re even asking. Doosras? Uhhh, we don’t talk about that so much anymore, but I heard there was a line in one of the rooms.The first big story about Kamindu Mendis, way back in 2018, was that he bowled fingerspin with either arm, so your initial thought was, “Here we go – another one of these guys.” Diamond stud in one ear. A clutch of gold chains. Probably doing shots with Muthiah Muralidaran, Ajantha Mendis, Akila Dananjaya and Maheesh Theekshana, right? He sounds fun. Let’s keep the buzz rolling.In the T20 age, when turning the ball away from the batter is so prized, when teams switch up batting orders to maintain left-right combinations, when captains often adhere almost slavishly to match-up dogma, here was serious potential.In a tour match in October that year, when Kamindu spun it in the approved direction both to left-hander Eoin Morgan and right-hander Joe Root and returned tidy figures, he had his first taste of international exposure. Many overseas publications foregrounded the novelty of his ambidextrous talent.Related
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He’d always been a better batter than a bowler, of course, but just 20 at the time, he could have easily gone in this flashy direction and become an ultra-modern product of the big-data age – a T20 bowling disruptor.Hone that accuracy with both arms, pick up a few variations of the slider, learn to swing it in the powerplay. He’d always been electric in the field, and could obviously bang boundaries to boot. There exists a timeline in which Kamindu is a white-hot T20 asset, flitting between continents by the month, dripping Lankan spin swag around the planet.Six years later, what he has become instead is a batter who has made the brightest start to a Test career for his country in decades. In his seven Test innings so far – with only one at home – he has two half-centuries, three hundreds, a top score of 164, and an average in the 90s. All of this batting at No. 6 or lower.Scores of 102, 164, and 92 not out in Bangladesh were impressive, but the conditions were typically Asian, and the attack – missing Shakib Al Hasan in the match in which Kamindu hit twin hundreds – was off-colour.But now he’s hit a hundred at Old Trafford in testing conditions. There was style to this innings – his cuts were elegant, his pulls were controlled, and he has an extra-cover drive you’d be happy to introduce to your parents. But there was also the old-school self-denial that you need in this format. If you have ever watched one of his limited-overs innings, you’d know he drives like a dream. Here in Manchester, he hit only one of his 16 boundaries in the V – choosing to defend or leave most balls pitched right up to him, this being his first Test outing against the Dukes ball in English conditions.Batting at No. 7 at Old Trafford, Kamindu showed off a range of strokes against England’s fast bowlers and spinners•Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty ImagesThere is spectacular talent here, but in this era of Sri Lankan cricket, developing the raw materials often proves most challenging. But Kamindu is a disruptor, perhaps even of dysfunction. He’s a top-order option in T20Is, having been outstanding in the Lanka Premier League in July. Earlier this month he hit a vital 40 off 44, then a sparkling 23 not out off 19 in ODI wins against India.And he is as reliable in the slips as he is dynamic in the covers as he is proactive in the outfield. You see an aerial shot heading in his direction and you suspect he will do more than most to turn it into a wicket. He will then celebrate with a grin, and little more, as he did after scoring his best hundred on Saturday.You sense, most of all, that he has this inner drive to never be out of the game. Top-order hitter? Yeah, he’ll do it. Middle-order stabiliser? Cool, he has the game to accumulate. Lower-order thorn in the opposition’s side? He’s all over it. There are two left-hand batters in? He’ll learn how to bowl with his non-dominant arm, so no captain can ever seriously sideline him.Test cricket right now is not always a party, particularly if you’re from a nation not named England, India, or Australia. It does not always feel fun. But Kamindu has strapped on his best shoes for every possible occasion, And right now, this is the joint he’s dancing at.