All Eyes on Captain Hasaranga

By Harsha Amarasinghe   

 Sri Lanka taking on Zimbabwe in the first T20 International on January 14 will see the dawn of a new era. Arguably the only world class cricketer Sri Lanka has in the shortest format - Wanindu Hasaranga would lead the country in the T20s.   

Outgoing captain Dasun Shanaka enjoyed success in the T20 format as the skipper when Sri Lanka lifted the Asia Cup a couple of years ago. In fact he has had a pretty decent run statistically as the captain. However, towards the end of 2023, Shanaka became a absolute free passenger in the team and eventually lost the captaincy.   

Hasaranga on the other hand was not someone who was groomed to be a captain from young age especially compared to players such as a Charith Asalanka or Kusal Mendis who had been recognized as captaincy material from their school careers.   

This makes Hasaranga a bit of a wildcard because it’s unpredictable as to what the fans could expect from Hasaranga.   

The only time Hasaranga captained a side in a high-profile league was when he led B-Love Kandy to maiden Lanka Premier League (LPL) title during which he was just unstoppable.   
The right-hander promoted himself up the order and smashed 279 runs in 9 innings at an average of 34.68 while picking up 19 wickets at an average of 10.74. The 26-year-old genuinely led from the front and it was one of the greatest ever performance in a franchise-based tournament.   

However, all of this came at the expense of a brutal injury which costed Hasaranga the 50-Over World Cup in 2023. Astonishingly, the former Richmond College star who without any shadow of doubt would go down as Sri Lanka’s best-ever leg spinner, is still to make an appearance in the 50-over World Cup.   

But what can the fans expect from Wanindu Hasaranga the T20 captain?   

As witnessed during the LPL, Hasaranga would take his chances in promoting himself should Sri Lanka get good starts with the bat.   

When an all-rounder is the captain of a team, they always either under-bowl or over-bowl themselves. Dasun Shanaka for instance didn’t give himself much chance as a bowler while someone like TM Dilshan when he was captain - probably bowled little too much. In Hasaranga’s case he is a bowling all-rounder which means almost always he is going to finish his quota of four overs, but it would be interesting to see how he’d view himself as a batsman.   

In the recent fast most of Hasaranga’s batting innings has been short. He looks to score runs quickly and losing his wicket in the process which is a problem for Sri Lanka that he is a batsman with real ability to get big runs. It would be interesting to see whether this approach to batting from Hasaranga remains as captain as well.   

The T20 World Cup is going to be played in conditions that might favour Hasaranga, so he is definitely going to be the man need to take responsibility and move ahead with this quite inconsistent team.