Karunaratne deserves opportunities to emulate Stokes

By Harsha Amarasinghe

Chamika Karunaratne has the opportunity to become Sri Lanka’s first ever genuine all-rounder after Sanath Jayasuriya, only if the management around him gives him the opportunity to showcase his talent or else he could easily be another Asela Gunaratne.

In recent times, Sri Lanka were fortunate to have the likes of Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera who could contribute with both ball and bat, but were they genuine all-rounders? However, Karunaratne in his brief career thus far has already indicated he has got all the attributes to be an all-rounder such as Ben Stokes.

It must be stated that the Royalist has been horribly underutilized particularly in the ongoing series against South Africa. As a bowler he has been only given eight overs in which he has claimed three wickets for 42 runs while Sri Lanka has conceded 569 runs in two games.

In terms of bringing the team together, Dasun Shanaka has done a tremendous job and there is no doubt that he is the best option to lead Sri Lanka in limited overs cricket, but perhaps tactically he could make some adjustments that would benefit the team as a whole.
One of the key attributes of Shanaka’s leadership is the faith he has put in his teammates which is a great quality, but sometimes it could bring about negative results as well.

One fine example was Shanaka’s persistence with Lakshan Sandakan against India in the ODIs which cost Sri Lanka the series and for Sandakan, possibly his career. The same way he opted to go with Akila Dananjaya in the death overs during Sri Lanka’s narrow win in the first ODI against South Africa, but Dananjaya took a crucial wicket and saved the day for himself, his captain and his country. So, things like this sometimes come off and sometimes it could go horribly wrong.

However, he has shown no interest in utilizing Karunaratne in the middle overs, sticking to his spin quartet of Dananjaya, Praveen Jayawickrama, Wanindu Hasaranga and Dhananjaya de Silva. Ben Stokes became a world class all-rounder because he was given the chance to showcase his talent, Karunaratne has been Sri Lanka’s best bowler in this series – but sadly he has bowled only eight overs out of possible 20.

Interesting fact – Karunaratne’s batting average in ODIs is 46 and his scores in the last five matches are 36, 7 not out, 3, 44 not out, 43 not out. It’s hard to decide who is the better batsman, out of Shanaka, Hasaranga and Karunaratne based on the performances in two series, but for the betterment of the team, the man in form must be backed to bat higher up in the middle order because what is the point of not making the best use of someone who is in red-hot form.

Certain cricket fans in Sri Lanka are worried if Karunaratne’s rapid development to a star cricketer would see him walking on the paths of the notorious trio of Sri Lanka cricket, which could happen to anybody, but many expect him to keep his feet on the ground because he hails from one unbelievably successful family growing up around three brothers who have made Sri Lanka proud in badminton.

Karunaratne could only reach the levels of Stokes if he is given the chance or else he would end up being another Gunaratne. To be fair, Gunaratne had the whole nation buzzing when he scored that monumental innings in Australia to win a match single handedly. His average in Test cricket is 56, but his career was simply ruined because he was not given the chance when he was in form.