Rex Clementine
in Sydney

There are few players who always made runs against Sri Lanka. There was Martin Crowe in 1980s, and then there was Mohammad Azharuddin in 1990s followed by Brian Lara in the next decade.  In the last decade it was Virat Kohli and now Glenn Maxwell has taken on that baton. Maxi as the Sri Lankan players call him loves our spin bowlers. Maxwell’s initial movements will get fielders going in one direction and then at the blink of an eye, he would have changed the shot. There’s no time for the fielders to react. He is such a versatile cricketer.

During the Sri Lanka versus Australia game in Perth this week, when Dasun Shanaka brought in Lahiru Kumara, there was an interesting battle going on. Kumara peppered the middle order batsman with short balls and then completely unsettled him with one that smashed his cheek bone. Maxwell was like a cat on a hot tin roof. He was hopping around and not often you see an Asian fast bowler getting the Aussies rattled.  Unless of course it’s Wasim Akram. Now that Lahiru too has done it, you’d be hoping that he will do it consistently.

Maxwell didn’t last long. Although Kumara didn’t get him, doubts had been cast in his mind and it was just a matter of time. Sri Lanka failed to stop Marcus Stoinis as their spinners proved to be ineffective for once. That takes you to the question how much the team would have loved having Dushmantha Chameera and Dilshan Madushanka during the World Cup.

Sri Lanka were shaping up nicely after their Asia Cup win. John Pye, the Australian based Sports Editor of Associated Press, had put them to go all the way to win the title. Then their setbacks with injuries. Six injuries in a campaign like the World Cup is too much to handle.

Kumara himself is coming from injury. Since walking off the field having hurt his hamstring in the Mohali Test in March this year, he has played just one domestic game before being picked in the World Cup squad. That shows how much the team management wanted him in the dressing room. There maybe more skilful quicks than Lahiru Kumara, but what makes him special is his speed. You can not teach someone to bowl fast. You either have it or you don’t have it.

It’s true that Kumara was a disappointment in the last World Cup when he ran out of ideas bowling that deciding last over to David ‘Killer’ Miller. The Proteas won that game in Sharjah but that toughened up Kumara.

Kumara is a late developer. He was initially a hockey player at Vidyartha, Kandy. A blow from a hockey stick to his forehead saw him ending up in hospital for a few days. When he returned home, his mother had thrown away the hockey stick.  Then he chose cricket. Hockey’s loss is cricket’s gain. While at Vidyartha, reputed school cricket coach Sampath Perera spotted his talent and offered him a scholarship to Trinity. There he made huge strides and made it to the Sri Lanka Under-19 team and toured England under Roy Dias. He was a star performer as Sri Lanka won both the unofficial Test and ODI series.

Kumara made it to the senior side just after turning 18 and debuted at the age of 19. In the New Year Test in Cape Town in 2017, he claimed six wickets in an innings. He was the talk of the town as even the South Africans who are no strangers to pace struggled.  Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma and J.P. Duminy were among his victims. All this mind you while being a teenager.

Although it’s been five years now since Kumara debuted, we have not seen his best as yet. The main reason for this has been injuries. During the last four years, he has broken down middle of a Test match with constant hamstring troubles and the recovery process has been slow. When Kumara is fully fit, he can make life difficult for batters as Maxwell found out the other day. Hopefully, he’ll have a couple of more good performances that will put Sri Lanka in the semis.