by Rex Clementine

Any player who has featured in two ICC Under-19 World Cups has to be special. Such unique talents are groomed early in their careers and eventually go on to captain the team when the time is ripe. Angelo Mathews is one such and so is Upul Tharanga. Kamindu Mendis like the two men who went on to captain Sri Lanka featured in two Under-19 World Cups – 2016 in Bangladesh and 2018 in New Zealand. He became a sensation overnight. Not for his exploits with the bat, but his ambidextrous abilities.

Kamindu was bowling left-arm orthodox spin in the 2016 edition of the tournament when he played under Charith Asalanka. But in the middle of an over, with a left-hander on strike, when he informed the umpire that he wants to bowl off-spin, he left the umpire bemused, the commentator amused and the poor batsman confused.

Kamindu is a left-handed batsman. So, you expected him to be a strong left-arm bowler too. But for some reason off-spin is his strong forte.

Why such unique talents have prospered over the years at Richmond College, Galle, is because cricket coaches at that school think out of the box. Dhammika Sudarshana ran a programme where he didn’t have many batters who scored 1000 runs in the season or claimed 100 wickets, but they won a record number of games. Players with the x-factor were backed heavily and their cricket has been a huge success story.

Although it’s Katmandu’s bowling that was highlighted in the early days, his batting has been always a sensation. Given the package he was offering, he should have been fast tracked to become a regular by now but he had to fight out tooth and nail to cement his place.

A half-century on his Test debut that too against the mighty Aussies proved to be not good enough, but two years later, he delivered the knockout punch with hundreds in each innings on his return to the side. He is the seventh Sri Lankan to the milestone and the youngest. Kamindu and his skipper Dhananjaya de Silva deserve lot of credit for their efforts came on a tough wicket.

Now that Kamindu has made it look all too easy, the temptation will be there to push him to number three. There’s sound reasoning as well for he bats there in domestic cricket and players with good temperament batting top of the order rather than being wasted at number seven serves the team well.

However, the other side of the coin is that it’s a very rare skill to bat at number seven. More often than not you get to bat with the tail and it’s a tough job. You’ve got to take calculated risks and farm the strike from the tail. Kamindu has done that well and should remain at number seven. Sri Lanka are unlikely to do any changes as of now, but in the long run, getting one of your best batters higher in the order is going to happen naturally.

This means Kusal Mendis will keep the number three slot and continue to keep wickets. But he’s under tremendous pressure. Lead up to Sri Lanka’s next Test series – three Tests in England, they might look at handing the gloves to someone like Dinesh Chandimal.

Opening batter Nishan Madushka will survive too, but only for the time being. Unless he gets something big in Bangladesh, it’s only a matter of time before Pathum Nissanka returns to the opening slot.