Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath, known as Rangana Herath, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer, who played all forms of the game and a former Test captain for Sri Lanka.
73 Facts About Rangana Herath
2.
Rangana Herath is currently working as spin bowling consultant with the Bangladesh cricket team.
3.
Rangana Herath was a member of the Sri Lankan team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20.
4.
Rangana Herath is a specialist left-arm bowler for Sri Lanka and holds the record of best bowling figures in Test matches by a left-arm spinner with 433 wickets.
5.
On 11 March 2017, Rangana Herath surpassed 362 wickets by Daniel Vettori to become the most successful left-arm spinner in Test cricket history.
6.
Rangana Herath is the first left-arm spinner to take 400 Test wickets.
7.
On 10 February 2018 during Bangladesh tour, Rangana Herath became the most successful left-arm bowler in Test cricket history by surpassing Wasim Akram.
8.
Rangana Herath has the longest Test cricket career for Sri Lanka with a span of 19 years from 1999 to 2018.
9.
On 29 May 2016, Rangana Herath became the third Sri Lankan bowler to take 300 wickets in Test cricket history after Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas.
10.
On 8 November 2016, Rangana Herath became only the third bowler in history to take five-wicket hauls against all Test-playing nations.
11.
Rangana Herath is the oldest player to reach 350 as well as 400 Test wickets.
12.
On 23 October 2016, Rangana Herath was announced as captain for Sri Lanka tour to Zimbabwe.
13.
On 22 October 2018, Rangana Herath announced his retirement from international cricket after the first Test at Galle against England.
14.
Rangana Herath was born on 19 March 1978, in the small village of Waduwawa, Kurunegala, on the southeastern tip of the Northwestern Province as the second of the family.
15.
Rangana Herath was promoted to opening batting in school times, and acted as a pacer, until his coach told him to start spin bowling due to height problem.
16.
Rangana Herath made his Twenty20 debut on 17 August 2004, for Moors Sports Club in the 2004 SLC Twenty20 Tournament.
17.
Rangana Herath played for Surrey during the latter part of the 2009 English cricket season.
18.
Rangana Herath made his Test debut at Galle International Stadium, Sri Lanka against Australia in 1999.
19.
Rangana Herath made a successful comeback to Test cricket in 2009 against Pakistan and took over the mantle of Sri Lanka's main spin bowler from Muralitharan.
20.
Rangana Herath broke into the national side after an impressive A tour to England.
21.
Rangana Herath while playing in two test matches in the series, deceived the visiting Australians with a delivery that darted the other way.
22.
Rangana Herath made a comeback to the Test side, taking 15 wickets in the 3 match Test series vs Pakistan played in Sri Lanka, winning the man-of-the-match award in the first Test.
23.
Rangana Herath then took 8 wickets in the second Test in the two match Test-series between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Sri Lanka.
24.
Rangana Herath played only in the test at Galle during the home series against India.
25.
Rangana Herath was recalled for the second test match against the West Indies in November 2010.
26.
Rangana Herath took 12 wickets during the first test match of the 2012 England test series.
27.
Rangana Herath's match winning performance helped him to secure the "Man of the Match" award in Galle.
28.
Rangana Herath was England's latest spin tormentor with 6 for 74 during the first inning and he took another 6 wickets for just 97 runs and confirmed the Sri Lanka's victory against the touring English team.
29.
Sri Lanka eventually won the tournament and Rangana Herath's spell was named the Wisden Men's T20I spell of the decade in 2019.
30.
Rangana Herath was man of the match in both Test matches and man of the series.
31.
Rangana Herath was only able to take a single wicket in the first innings and had a fairly poor performance in the first innings.
32.
Just as in the first innings, Rangana Herath was all over the Windies, where they all out for 227 runs, giving Sri Lanka a huge win by an innings and 6 runs.
33.
In England tour 2016, Rangana Herath took two wickets in the first test at Leeds, with 299 test wickets.
34.
Rangana Herath became the third Sri Lankan after Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas to reach 300 test wickets in history.
35.
Rangana Herath played well with the bat scoring 61 whilst batting with Dinesh Chandimal before being out to James Anderson.
36.
On 11 February 2018, against Sri Lanka, Rangana Herath overtook the legendary Wasim Akram's wicket tally in Test cricket to become the highest wicket-taking left-arm bowler.
37.
Rangana Herath revealed his intentions to retire from ODIs and T20Is after 2016 ICC World Twenty20.
38.
Sri Lanka exited from the World T20 in the first round and Rangana Herath announced his retirement on 17 April 2016.
39.
Until retirement, Rangana Herath played 71 ODIs, took 74 wickets with the average of 31.91.
40.
Rangana Herath played 17 T20Is, where took 18 wickets with the best bowling figures of 5 for 3 against New Zealand in 2014 World T20I.
41.
Rangana Herath showed his talents in home soil back against Australian in the Warne Murali Series in 2016.
42.
Rangana Herath has taken 7 fifers in the fourth innings of Tests by 29 innings, which is the most fifers in second innings in least innings, previously held by legendary Muttiah Muralitharan, who took 35 innings to reach the milestone.
43.
Rangana Herath became the second Sri Lankan after Nuwan Zoysa, and first Sri Lankan spinner to take a Test hat-trick.
44.
Rangana Herath is the second left-arm orthodox bowler ever to take a Test hat trick after Johnny Briggs in 1892.
45.
Rangana Herath took 13 wickets in the last test match and 28 wickets in the series.
46.
The match was won by Sri Lanka, where Rangana Herath led from the front, took 6 wickets in the match.
47.
On 8 November 2016, Rangana Herath took his 27th five wicket haul, becoming the third overall to take five-wicket hauls against all Test-playing nations, after Muttiah Muralitharan and Dale Steyn.
48.
Rangana Herath took 13 wickets in the second test match, recording best bowling figures against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe.
49.
Rangana Herath dismissed Carl Mumba by taking 350th wicket, recorded as the oldest player to achieve the feat.
50.
Only Muralitharan has taken more 12-wicket hauls than Rangana Herath, who has five to Murali's six.
51.
Rangana Herath falls in the bracket of the legends: the Sangakkaras, the Jayawardenes, the Muralitharans.
52.
Rangana Herath made sure he kept working on his game all through those years so that he could grab the opportunity when it came.
53.
Rangana Herath was appointed as the Test captain for the March 2017 Bangladesh tour in home soil, after Angelo Mathews was not able to recover from the injuries.
54.
Rangana Herath took six wickets at the end to give Sri Lanka a 257 runs win.
55.
Rangana Herath was only the second left arm spinner to grab 350+ test wickets after Daniel Vettori in test history.
56.
Rangana Herath is the second player from Sri Lanka and the 12th from the subcontinent to achieve the feat.
57.
Rangana Herath was appointed as the stand-in captain for the first test against India in August 2017 as the captain Dinesh Chandimal was diagnosed with pneumonia.
58.
Rangana Herath took only one wicket and conceded 159 runs in the first innings of the visitors.
59.
Rangana Herath took 5 five-wicket hauls and 2 ten-wicket hauls in the year with economy of 2.61.
60.
Rangana Herath had complained of a stiff back during the SSC Test having bowled 42 overs.
61.
Rangana Herath had sent down 71.1 overs in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe before the series with India and had bowled 49 overs at Galle.
62.
Rangana Herath was rested from the final Test in Pallekele.
63.
Rangana Herath adjudged man of the match award as well for his impressive match-winning bowling performances.
64.
Rangana Herath had complained about back pain at the end of the Test and as a result was ruled out of the third Test in New Delhi.
65.
Rangana Herath equalled the Sri Lankan record of Muttiah Muralitharan for taking the most wickets in the fourth innings of test matches and just second only to Shane Warne who has achieved 138 wickets.
66.
In July 2018, Rangana Herath hinted that he thinks to retire from international cricket in November, after the England series.
67.
Rangana Herath is the last Test cricketer to retire after making his debut in the 20th century.
68.
Rangana Herath played his last Test match at his favorite venue Galle International Stadium on 6 November 2018.
69.
Rangana Herath scored 14 runs in the first innings and 5 runs in the second innings, until he run out as the last victim in Sri Lanka innings.
70.
Until his retirement from Tests, Rangana Herath is the 8th highest wicket taker of all time.
71.
In November 2020, Rangana Herath was nominated for the ICC Men's Test Cricketer of the Decade award.
72.
In June 2021, Rangana Herath was appointed as the spin bowling consultant of the Bangladesh national cricket team by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
73.
Rangana Herath replaced Daniel Vettori who served as spin bowling coach from July 2019.