66 Facts About Suranga Lakmal

1.

Ranasinghe Arachchige Suranga Lakmal is a former professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who played in all formats of the game and is a former Test cricket captain.

2.

Suranga Lakmal is a right-arm fast bowler and right-handed batsman.

3.

Suranga Lakmal started his cricket life in Debarawewa National School, Tissamaharama.

4.

Suranga Lakmal had to carry the so-called 'foreign objects' in his body during his playing career with the recommendation of the doctors in order to continue his cricketing career aftermath the 2009 Lahore attacks where he was severely injured.

5.

Doctors advised Lakmal to take a break from cricket for at least two years in order to remove the splinters on his right arm and leg and he underwent complicated surgery to remove the splinters.

6.

Suranga Lakmal had to deal with the circumstances of not being allowed to go pass the metal detectors during his overseas trips with the national side mainly due to the presence of the foreign objects in his body.

7.

Suranga Lakmal was a regular feature in the test team and made sporadic appearances in limited overs cricket.

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8.

Suranga Lakmal is only behind Chaminda Vaas for having taken the most wickets for Sri Lanka in test cricket with 168 and he is the current fourth leading wicket taker for Sri Lanka in tests.

9.

Suranga Lakmal was a useful bat often chipping with useful contributions batting down the low order.

10.

Suranga Lakmal insisted that his aim is to finish his career with 200 or 250 test wickets.

11.

Suranga Lakmal largely played holding role in white ball limited overs matches although he had his moments leading the pace attack in crunch situations.

12.

Suranga Lakmal was relatively popular among the teammates in the national side and was highly heralded as a team man.

13.

Suranga Lakmal is known for his quick and accurate bowling action especially with the knack of generating big swing and lateral seam movement.

14.

Suranga Lakmal has taken five wicket hauls in three of four SENA nations including Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.

15.

Suranga Lakmal mostly played the holding role and bowled relatively lesser number of overs due to his inability to take wickets in spin friendly Sri Lankan pitches.

16.

Suranga Lakmal felt the heat at times being under scrutiny for being an injury prone and due to his fitness issues.

17.

Suranga Lakmal currently plays for the Tamil Union Cricket and Athletic Club.

18.

Suranga Lakmal was an important member of 2014 ICC World Twenty20 winning team.

19.

On 2 February 2022, Suranga Lakmal announced that he would retire from all forms of international cricket following Sri Lanka's tour of India.

20.

Suranga Lakmal then attended Richmond College, Galle and played his senior school cricket at Richmond College.

21.

Suranga Lakmal's talent was first spotted by fast bowling coaches of Sri Lanka Cricket while he was still schooling at Debarewewa Central.

22.

Suranga Lakmal's progress was closely monitored by the coaches when he transferred to the Richmond College.

23.

Suranga Lakmal initially lacked the stamina to bowl long spells due to lack of nutrition despite his natural talent and was believed to have fallen ill during one of the occasions when he delivered a long spell at net session.

24.

Suranga Lakmal was looked after well and was groomed when he was inducted into the cricket academy especially knowing the fact that he hailed from an outstation area.

25.

Suranga Lakmal's father was a farmer and he moved to Colombo from his native Hambantota to pursue his interest in cricket.

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26.

Suranga Lakmal received imminent attention and support to pursue his career in cricket from Dinal Philips who then served as the President's Counsel for a considerable period of time and whom Lakmal later would later acknowledge as his father figure.

27.

Suranga Lakmal made his presence felt at domestic cricket since joining Tamil Union in 2007.

28.

Suranga Lakmal made his List A debut for Tamil Union against the Colts Cricket Club on 17 November 2007.

29.

Suranga Lakmal made his first-class debut for Tamil Union against Nondescripts Cricket Club on 17 January 2008.

30.

Suranga Lakmal made his T20 debut for Basnahira South against Wayamba on 23 April 2008.

31.

Suranga Lakmal was one of the three players earmarked for a bright future by Chandika Hathurusinghe way back in 2008 during Sri Lanka A's cricket tour of South Africa in 2008.

32.

Suranga Lakmal was called up as a replacement for Dilhara Fernando in India in December 2009 and he made his ODI debut in the second match in Nagpur, where he bowled eight wicketless overs for 58 runs before Sri Lanka won by three wickets.

33.

Suranga Lakmal made his Test debut on 23 November 2010 against the West Indies in the second Test match played at the R Premadasa Stadium, becoming the 114th Sri Lankan Test player.

34.

Suranga Lakmal soon became the mainstay in the national side ever since the retirement of Chaminda Vaas and he cemented his position on the back of impressive performances at domestic level.

35.

Suranga Lakmal made his T20I debut against England on 25 June 2011 and he dismissed Michael Lumb on his opening over to claim his first T20I wicket.

36.

Suranga Lakmal had his first breakthrough test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates where he ended up taking 12 wickets on the pitches which didn't quite suit well for the seamers to cash in.

37.

Suranga Lakmal was one of the members of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 triumph although he didn't play in any of the matches.

38.

Suranga Lakmal was fined 30 percent of his match fees for bowling two successive beamers at Jos Buttler during the 50th over of the group stage match between Sri Lanka and England at the 2015 Cricket World Cup which caused match referee David Boon to interrupt and impose sanctions on him calling it as dangerous and unfair bowling.

39.

Suranga Lakmal is the first cricketer from Hambantota District to represent the national cricket team of Sri Lanka.

40.

Suranga Lakmal is the highest wicket-taker for Sri Lanka in the series with 12 wickets at an average of 30.83.

41.

Suranga Lakmal was part of the Sri Lankan team at the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.

42.

Suranga Lakmal felt discomfort on the field during the test match at Delhi due to the air pollution and vomited in the field during India's first innings.

43.

On 10 December 2017, in the first ODI against India, Suranga Lakmal used swinging and seaming bowling performance to rip through Indian batting line-up to restrict them to 112, which was India's third-lowest in ODIs at home and their lowest at home when batting first.

44.

Suranga Lakmal finished his bowling spell with four wickets for 13 runs, which is best bowling figures in ODIs up to date.

45.

Suranga Lakmal adjudged man of the match for his match winning bowling performance.

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46.

On 25 January 2018 against Bangladesh, Suranga Lakmal delivered a match winning bowling performance to dismantle Bangladesh to 82 runs, which is their second lowest against Sri Lanka in all ODIs.

47.

Sri Lanka won the match by 10 wickets and Suranga Lakmal has awarded man of the match.

48.

On 8 February 2018, during second Test against Bangladesh, Suranga Lakmal took his 100th Test wicket by dismissing Tamim Iqbal caught by himself.

49.

Suranga Lakmal became the fourth Sri Lankan fast bowler to achieve the feat after Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga and Dilhara Fernando.

50.

Suranga Lakmal is currently the fourth highest Test wicket taker for Sri Lanka.

51.

Suranga Lakmal was mostly inconsistent in test cricket up until the end of 2017 averaging 44.94 after 42 test match appearances.

52.

Suranga Lakmal became the 16th player to captain Sri Lanka in a Test match.

53.

Suranga Lakmal became the first Sri Lankan captain to take a wicket in his opening over of a test match when he dismissed Devon Smith in very first over and the first captain since 2002 to do so in test cricket after Waqar Younis.

54.

Suranga Lakmal became the first bowling captain to deliver the first over of a test match since 2004 after Heath Streak.

55.

Chandimal received a two-match ban, with Suranga Lakmal captaining the side in his place.

56.

On 1 August 2018, Suranga Lakmal took his 100th ODI wicket by dismissing David Miller during the second ODI against South Africa.

57.

Suranga Lakmal became the 10th Sri Lankan fast bowler to achieve the milestone.

58.

On 8 August 2018, Suranga Lakmal defended seven runs off the final over to cap off Sri Lanka to end an 11-match losing streak against South Africa.

59.

Suranga Lakmal finished with 5 for 75, though Sri Lanka lost the match by an innings margin.

60.

Suranga Lakmal had a fair World Cup campaign and Sri Lanka finished the tournament as sixth in the table.

61.

In December 2019, Suranga Lakmal was ruled out of the team due to dengue fever.

62.

In January 2020, Suranga Lakmal was recalled into the test squad for the series against Zimbabwe.

63.

Suranga Lakmal was the spearhead of the Sri Lankan attack, where he took 3 for 53 in first innings and then 4 for 27 in the second innings.

64.

Suranga Lakmal ended the series as the leading wicket taker with 11 scalps and bagged the player of the series award for his bowling display.

65.

Suranga Lakmal played a crucial role in being an integral part of Sri Lanka's campaign during the inaugural ICC World Test Championship where he ended up as the second highest wicket taker for Sri Lanka with 20 scalps.

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66.

Suranga Lakmal drew wide attention in test cricket from 2018 where he was deemed to be a better bowler than before due to the fact that his bowling average in away soil was just around 22.30 since the start of 2018 to March 2021.