Mahela Jayawardana

10 years ago a talented young right handed batsmen made his one day international debut against Zimbabwe. He made 74 in that match. That day most of the cricketing masterminds provoked that one day this lad will be a world class player. After 10 years he has fulfilled that profit. Today he is not only a world class batsman but also the captain of his side. He is none other than the Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardana.

Mahela made a promising start to his career when he made a century (120) against England in Melbourne under lights. He has smashed the ball to all parts of the ground and took Sri Lanka to a stunning victory chasing over 300 runs.

But soon after, his one day form was shattered. His one day average was dropped severely. He was getting lots of starts but couldn’t capitalize on them. He couldn’t make a centaury for about 125 matches. The peak of this bad patch was the 2003 world cup where he made only 23 runs in 9 matches.

Mahela is a naturally gifted player. He is one of the most exclusive timers of the cricket ball. The talent was always with him. But his problem lies with his shot selection. He tried to play too many shots too early in his innings and got into trouble. Mahela was criticized lot of times for getting out after making twenties and thirties and not getting the big ones consistently.

Patience and the ability to mix caution with aggression was not the problem with Mahela because his test career is glittering with success. He averages nearly 50 in test matches and his highest score of 374(which is the 4 highest score in the test match history) shows that he is a fantastic test player. But his run scoring in overseas conditions is something that he has to work on because his performance their shows a significant difference when compared with his career statistics.