Thilan Samaraweera
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| Thilan Samaraweera | ||||
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 Sri Lanka |
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| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||
| Bowling style | Right-arm offbreak | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Tests | ODIs | |||
| Matches | 39 | 17 | ||
| Runs scored | 2089 | 199 | ||
| Batting average | 42.31 | 16.58 | ||
| 100s/50s | 6/14 | -/- | ||
| Top score | 142 | 33 | ||
| Balls bowled | 1285 | 672 | ||
| Wickets | 14 | 10 | ||
| Bowling average | 47.92 | 50.89 | ||
| 5 wickets in innings | - | - | ||
| 10 wickets in match | - | n/a | ||
| Best bowling | 4/49 | 3/34 | ||
| Catches/stumpings | 30/- | 3/- | ||
Thilan Thusara Samaraweera is a Sri Lankan cricketer, born September 22, 1976 in Colombo. Samaraweera plays international cricket for Sri Lanka and is in the side primarily for his solid right handed batting but is also a capable Off spinner.
Samaraweera started his career as an offspinner who could bat a bit and couldn't find a way into the side due to the emergence of Muttiah Muralitharan. He managed a handful of ODI games in 1998 but didn't play Test cricket until August 2001. Having worked on his batting considerably he got due reward by scoring century on debut against a strong Indian side helping Sri Lanka to win the series 2-1. He continued to star with the bat by scoring another two centuries in his next five Tests, all on his home ground, the SSC in Colombo. This stunning start to international cricket cemented his spot in the middle order, a spot which had holes to fill with the retirements of Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratne. His off-spin has been rarely called upon by his captain but when he comes on he has earned a reputation as a partnership breaker.
After a poor Test series in England in which he failed to reach double figures in any of his four innings, he was dropped from the side. He was made captain of Sri Lanka A before earning a recall for the first Test against Australia in Brisbane. He scored 13 and 20 and was promptly dropped when Kumar Sangakkara returned to the side for the second game in Hobart. This was followed by his non-inclusion in the squad to play England in the first Test in Kandy.[2]
