Sanath Jayasuriya- the Ace of Opening, Prince of all-rounders

Sanath Jayasuriya- the Ace of Opening, Prince of all-rounders: Sanath Teran Jayasuriya, is the title for a lot of things packed inside a single package! Well, the prior statement does describe the stature of this man in Sri Lankan Cricket and in international Cricket as a whole. An international career composed of mammoth 22 years is by far something privileged. Jayasuriya has been revolutionary in many aspects, starting from pinch hitting, wicket taking, slogging, economical bowling to many other things.

As a matter of fact, Jayasuriya started off his international career as a left arm spinner who could bat a bit. Sounds strange now that we have seen how exploitative his batting skills were. Half of the first decade of his international career had him playing under this category. However, he slowly emerged to be a devastating batsman and we are all aware of the revolutionary ploys he used in the 1996 World Cup for Sri Lanka. Prior to the advent of such humiliating batting instincts, no one had thought of utilising the field restrictions in the power play overs with such precision and to gain such advantage as a batting side. Jayasuriya stood to be the most valuable player of the 1996 World Cup.

He was responsible to put Sri Lanka into a zone of comfort by providing the team with some magnetic starts up front. As a matter of fact, Jayasuriya has scored a total of 1165 runs in World Cup cricket which is the second best by a Sri Lankan batsman.

Apart from being a dynamite with the bat, Jayasuriya was a sensational left arm spinner too and was capable of taking breakthroughs at crucial points of the game. Jayasuriya has scored a total of 13430 runs in ODIs with the aid of 28 centuries. In addition to it, he has taken a total of 323 wickets in ODIs. Jayasuriya is still the only player in the planet to have over 12000 ODI runs and over 300 ODI wickets by his name. This speaks of the gigantic stature for the all-rounder. In the tests, he played a total of 110 test matches and scored 6973 runs and took 98 wickets.

We have put light on the majestic batting and bowling qualities of Jayasuriya. But this is not over. He was also an incredible captain and took Sri Lanka to great heights under his leadership. He captained the side to the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 in which Sri Lanka were the joint champions with India. In the 2003 World Cup, he captained the side to proceed through to the semi final stages when they were ultimately defeated by Australia in a rain intervened game.

Jayasuriya is perhaps on of the most versatile cricketers the cricket world has ever seen. He could easily cope up with any format of the game and in real quick time. Sanath also opened the innings for Mumbai Indians along with Sachin Tendulkar in the first few seasons of the Indian Premier League and was quite much successful in it.

Presently, he is shouldering his job as a member of the selection committee of the Sri Lankan cricket. Undoubtedly, Sri Lanka was lucky enough to have such a cricketer like him. He was the hero for them which they did deserve to a boosting extent.

The left handed legend turns 46 today. Yes it is the birthday of the most tormenting batsman of all time. The entire team of CricTracker wishes this majestic, brilliant and sensational Sanath a very Happy and a Prosperous Birthday!