Kamindu Mendis new star of Sri Lanka’s batting

Kamindu Mendis a moment to relive, a century on his first Test appearance in England

LORD’S: When Kamindu Mendis scored a century in his first appearance in a Test in England he joined a select band of cricketers from Sri Lanka who had done so before him.

He became the sixth Sri Lankan to do so following in the footsteps of an elite line up headed by Sidath Wettimuny, Duleep Mendis and Amal Silva (all of whom achieved the feat in Sri Lanka’s inaugural Test tour to England in 1984), Prasanna Jayawardene in 2011 at Cardiff and Angelo Mathews in 2014 at Lord’s. Mendis and Mathews are the only Sri Lankan cricketers to achieve that landmark as captains.

Although it took two of Sri Lanka’s foremost cricketers Aravinda de Silva (4 tours to England) and Kumar Sangakkara (3 tours) to score a Test century on English soil, Mendis in his first appearance seemed nonchalant as he went about his job in tough conditions at Manchester where it was bitterly cold, overcast and windy to carve out a century that saved Sri Lanka embarrassment from a three-day finish to the Test. Mendis’ knock gave the Lankan bowlers something to work on in the England second innings chasing 205. Although the Test ended on day four, Sri Lanka came out of it with their heads held high with a threat that at Lord’s and at the Oval in better suited conditions they are going to be a pretty handful.

“The confidence level is good for me as well as for the other players. We are looking forward to keeping the form in the next two games. In the last Test we gave a good fight although it was cold. If we can turn it around it will be good for us. We are well prepared. I hope it will be warmer at Lord’s,” said Mendis.

Playing at Lord’s venue of the second Test starting Thursday is the dream of any cricketer and for Mendis it is like a dream come true.

“When I was a boy, it was my dream to play at Lord’s,” said Mendis. “Not only for me, for any cricketer it is a dream to play at Lord’s. It’s a privilege. We have come to that point now. If we are able to win this Test it will be a perfect icing on the cake.”

“I have not been to England before it was a challenge for me to play here. I wanted to keep things simple and do the basic things in the middle. I did well in the first game. Looking forward to doing the same in the upcoming games.”

Mendis said that he was fortunate to bat with experienced batters like Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal during his first-up century in England at Manchester.  

“We had challenging conditions at Manchester much colder than we expected but I think we performed the best we could as a team under such circumstances. I got a lot of support from the other batters, especially Angelo and Chandi. A special mention of Chandi. He batted with an injured finger and his innings was very important to the team. It inspired me to go for a hundred. I was fortunate to bat with both of them and able to share their experience.” “To get a hundred on his first tour to England is unbelievable,” said Chandimal. “It took me two tours to score a Test hundred in England. He is a fine player. He is world class. He has a positive mind-set which is his greatest asset. I spoke to him when we were having lunch. He said that he is in a very positive frame of mind. He is a player like that. It is good for us to have a teammate like him.”

Having begun his Test career with a half-century against Australia at Galle in 2022, the former Richmondite cricketer enjoys a Bradmanesque batting average of 92.16 after 4 Tests where he has scored 3 hundreds and 2 fifties.

“I don’t think so much about my batting average. I want to do what is expected of me on that day for the team. In the future too I hope to do the same, either batting, bowling or fielding. My job is to correct my mistakes and move forward.”

Mendis played with the likes of Charith Asalanka and Wanindu Hasaranga in the Richmond team from Under-13 to Under-19 level. “We played some good cricket at that time. I got a lot of strength playing for Richmond.”

Mendis broke into Test cricket at the height of Covid-19 in 2022 and got his chance to make his debut against Australia when Dhananjaya de Silva, the present captain was struck down by the virus. Although he made a debut fifty Mendis found himself on the side-lines when De Silva returned to the team. He didn’t get a look-in again till the 2024 tour to Bangladesh where he certainly established himself playing a big role in Sri Lanka’s 2-0 sweep of the series scoring 367 runs (avg. 122.33) with 2 centuries.  

“I knew the batting was packed and my chances of getting into the side were less. I thought whatever chances I get I will do my best. I got the opportunity and I scored 61, but I had to go out when Dhananjaya returned. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. It was a fair decision,” said Mendis. “You have to make certain decisions to balance the team. During the time I was left out I was always in the squad and made all the Test tours. Being with experienced players on tours has also helped a lot in my career.”

Interim Head Coach Sanath Jayasuriya described Mendis as a free-flowing batsman. “He plays a simple game. He knows his strengths and weaknesses and he has got his game plan nicely planned out. He still has some work to do but he is a classy all-round player. If you see his wagon-wheel he hits all around the wicket, drives, cuts, pulls, works the singles and rotates the strike. His confidence is really high. Getting a hundred in England in these conditions is not easy at all. It’s challenging because every time something is happening with the ball. But hats off to him, he batted very well with Chandi. You must see the way he practices in the nets. He bats for hours and hours and works hard at his game. When you do that, you get results in the middle.”