Wanindu Hasaranga


Pinnaduwage Wanindu Hasaranga De Silva, or Wanindu Hasaranga, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who plays for the national team in limited over internationals. His elder brother, Chaturanga de Silva, has also represented the national team.

Early years

Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva was educated at Richmond College, Galle, where he started his cricket career. He represented Sri Lankan under 19 cricket team at the Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Bangladesh in 2016.

Domestic career

He made his List A debut on 30 November 2015 in the AIA Premier Limited Over Tournament.
In December 2015 he was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He made his first-class debut for Sri Lanka Ports Authority Cricket Club in the 2015–16 Premier League Tournament on 26 February 2016.
In November 2017, he was named the most promising player in domestic cricket for the 2016–17 season at Sri Lanka Cricket's annual awards. He made his Twenty20 debut for Sylhet Sixers on 11 November 2017 in the 2017–18 Bangladesh Premier League.
In March 2018, he was named in Colombo's squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. The following month, he was also named in Colombo's squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. In August 2018, he was named in Dambulla's squad the 2018 SLC T20 League.
He was the leading run-scorer for Colombo Cricket Club in the 2018–19 Premier League Tournament, with 765 runs in nine matches. In March 2019, he was named in Galle's squad for the 2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament.

International career

He was named to Sri Lanka's One Day International squad for their series against Zimbabwe. He made his ODI debut for Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe on 2 July 2017. In the match, he took the final three Zimbabwe wickets in the innings in consecutive deliveries, becoming the youngest bowler to take a hat-trick on debut in an ODI. He was also the third debutant in ODI history to claim a hat-trick after Bangladeshi Taijul Islam and South African Kagiso Rabada. He also became the first leg-spinner to take a hat-trick in ODI history.
In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season. In August 2019, he was named in Sri Lanka's Twenty20 International squad for their series against New Zealand. He made his T20I debut for Sri Lanka, against New Zealand, on 1 September 2019.
In September 2019, Hasaranga was included as the only specialist spinner for the Pakistan series in Pakistan, where many major players withdrew from the team due to security concerns. During the T20I series, he took eight wickets, where Sri Lanka dominated against Pakistan. Sri Lanka won all three matches and whitewashed Pakistan for the first time. It was Sri Lanka's first ever series win against Pakistan in a T20I bilateral series. Sri Lanka went on to win the final T20I match by 13 runs, winning the series 3–0. It was the first time in a three-match T20I series that Sri Lanka had won 3–0, and the first time that Pakistan had been whitewashed. Due to his match winning all round ability, Hasaranga was adjudged as man of the match of third T20I as well as player of the series.
During the ODI series against West Indies, Hasaranga showed all round talent where he took crucial wickets at the right time and scored match winning knocks. In the first ODI, he scored match winning unbeaten 42 runs to seal the game for Sri Lanka by 1 wicket. He also won the man off the match award. In second and third ODIs, he delivered the most economical spells for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka finally won the series 3-0 and Hasaranga won player of the series award.
On 4 March 2020 during first T20I against West Indies, he scored 44 off 34. Sri Lanka's first five wickets fell apart for 45 runs in the chase. However, Kusal Perera along with Hasaranga had a partnership of 87 off 57 balls where Sri Lanka back in the chase. However Perera dismissed for 66 off 38 and Hasaranga for 44 off 34, West Indies finally won the match by 25 runs.