Asitha Fernando’s journey to Sri Lanka’s Test spearheads

By Harsha Amarasinghe 

Out of the pool of Sri Lanka Under-19 fast bowlers back in 2015, the two names that were discussed the most were Lahiru Kumara and Asitha Fernando. While they both made their international debuts in 2017, Kumara was the one who had a consistent run in the national team and one of the reasons for this was his extra pace. 

With most of the senior campaigners at the time in the twilight of their career, Kumar’s raw pace kept him in the side for longer period of time, but he had a few injury setbacks at the time as well. 

Fernando on the other hand, though made his debut in 2017, wasn’t even close to get a consistent run in the national team before he made a brilliant comeback in 2021. 

With Dushmantha Chameera being the leader of the pack and the emergence of the likes of Matheesha Pathirana and Dushmantha Chameera, Fernando was unable to settle into the limited over teams but slowly but steadily became one of the most important members of Sri Lanka Test side.

Although he doesn’t bowl at express pace, Fernando turned out to be a bowler who gives his best every single time he bowls. Especially, under the Captaincy of Dimuth Karunaratne, Sri Lanka fast bowlers used to bowl a lot of short-pitched deliveries whenever, they bowled at the tail and also at times when they struggled to break a partnership. 

Fernando became an instrumental part of executing this plan; he became someone who could deliver what the captain wanted from his fast bowler. 

His performance in 2022 in Bangladesh where he captured 13 wickets in two Test matches on conditions that favoured spin bowling probably turned his career around giving himself and also the captain the belief that he could be a very reliable bowler in longer format. 

He continued to be among wickets since then and last week claimed a five-wicket haul at Lord’s in a defeat to England. 

His consistent performance has now seen him breaking into the top 10 ICC fast bowling rankings moving nine places upto eighth place with 734 points. 

Despite being overlooked for such a long period, Fernando made his way back to the national setup and made himself Sri Lanka’s Neil Wagner - a man that a captain could turn into in any given situation. 

While he has been a star with ball, one must not forget his memorable cameo in the Asia Cup 2022 against Bangladesh which played a massive part in Sri Lanka eventually going on to being the champions.