This Prabath Jayasuriya is making Test cricket look all too easy. As someone pointed out the other day, ‘death, taxes and a Prabath Jayasuriya five-fer in Galle are the certainties in life.’
After six Test matches, the left-arm spinner has 43 wickets. Next week in Galle he is set to become the quickest Sri Lankan to the 50-wicket landmark, a record currently held by two off-spinners. Dilruwan Perera and Ramesh Mendis had reached the milestone in 11 Tests. Jayasuriya has raced there. With plenty to spare.
If Jayasuriya takes the remaining seven wickets in the next Test in Galle, which he should achieve, given how poorly the Irish played him, he will become the second quickest player to get to the landmark in seven Tests. South Africa’s Vernon Philander and England’s Tom Richardson had also reached the milestone in seven Tests. Australian Charlie Turner holds the record having achieved the landmark in six Tests. That was way back in 1888, some 135 years ago.
A rich haul of wickets in his first six Tests has seen Jayasuriya making rapid strides in ICC Rankings for bowlers in Test match cricket. He is currently ranked 19th having leaped 13 positions following his match bag of ten wickets in the first Test. A similar performance next week will see him breaking into the top ten rankings for bowlers. It’s been a while that we had a Sri Lankan in the top ten since Rangana Herath quit the game.
Jayasuriya’s career is somewhat similar to that of Herath. Until he passed his 30th birthday, there was nothing extraordinary about Herath, but when he made his comeback against Pakistan in 2009, he was quite a bowler. Post Murali era, most of Sri Lanka’s Test wins at home were scripted by the champion left-arm spinner while there were the occasional memorable moment overseas as well like in Durban 2011 when Sri Lanka won their maiden Test in South Africa.
For Herath of course opportunities were few and rare due to the presence of Murali in the side. In Jayasuriya’s case, he didn’t reach the limelight until very recently. When he was about to break into the side two years ago, he was dismissed after failing the skinfold test. He had to wait for one more year and since debuting against the Aussies last year, he has been a sensation.
There are other talented spin bowlers in the circuit like Ramesh Mendis, Lasith Embuldeniya and Praveen Jayawickrama. All are young and quite promising. What separates Jayasuriya from the rest is that he rarely bowls loose balls and he is capable of building pressure for considerable period of time and in Galle when you do that, it’s just a matter of time before the batter makes a mistake. At times you don’t get the rewards you deserve. When you bowl in tandem with someone the wicket goes to your colleague but that’s what Test match is all about.
Bigger challenges will come Jayasuriya’s way as he moves along. It remains to be seen how he goes about his business bowling on a more docile track at SSC or at Pallekele or P. Sara Oval, which doesn’t favour spin from day one.
Or more importantly how he fares when he travels overseas. As it tuns out, Jayasuriya has featured in four Tests at home and all of them have been in Galle.
By the looks of it, Jayasuriya has it in him to succeed in all conditions at home. He could be the key for Sri Lanka for winning home Test matches.
The biggest challenge for a spinner is to succeed in India. Although these are early days for Jayasuriya with big wickets every time he features in a Test, India will be a test of fire. Both Murali and Herath have horrendous records in India with Murali averaging 45, way over his career average of 22 while Herath going for 54 runs per wicket in India although in his career he averaged 28.
It’s not a problem pertaining to Sri Lankan spinners. Even the great Shane Warne averaged 43 in India as batters like VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar completely destroyed him with their aggressive style of play.
But India is the last thing we should worry at the moment. Let’s enjoy and celebrate Prabath Jayasuriya as he continues to outfox batsmen not with any mystery about which we have developed a fondness over the years. He does his job relying on his strengths like bowling to accurate line and lengths.
It has been a remarkable journey for him as well emerging from an area like Matale which is not quite popular for cricket but has passion for hockey. His shift to Colombo to try out cricket has been a masterstroke. We will hear a lot more as he scripts some famous wins for Sri Lanka moving forward.
