Sangakkara: all in one package

Sri Lanka's captain performs the role stylish batsman, safe wicket-keeper and shrewd captain.

NEW DEHLI: Sri Lanka cannot ask for more of Kumar Sangakkara who performs a triple role – stylish batsman, safe wicket-keeper and shrewd captain.

The 33-year-old has played 282 One-Day Internationals (ODI), scoring 8,699 runs. He also boasts having struck 10 centuries and 59 fifties in ODIs alone. The left-hander knows that he, as well as his side, will need to be at their best in all departments in the World Cup if he aims to emulate Arjuna Ranatunga or go one step beyond his predecessor Mahela Jayawardene.

Like Jayawardene, Sangakkara does not appear to be as aggressive as Ranatunga, but is second to none when it comes to reading a match situation and exploiting the opposition’s shortcomings. The success of Australian Adam Gilchrist, India’s MS Dhoni and New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum showed that the days of pure wicket-keepers were over in one-day cricket.

Sangakkara also belongs to the ‘wicketkeeper-batsman’ club, giving his side more options. Named ODI captain in 2009, Sangakkara showed Sri Lankan cricket was on right track when his side beat four-time World Cup winners Australia to clinch their maiden ODI series Down Under.

The victory came at the right time for Sri Lanka, trying to find match-winners in the absence of hard-hitting batsman Sanath Jayasuriya and fast-bowler Chaminda Vaas.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2011.