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Follow UsIf you’d been told a day before the India-Sri Lanka ODIs started that Charith Asalanka, in the series, would go on to achieve a rare feat matched by only two other Lankan captains in ODI history, Sanath Jayasuriya and Angelo Mathews, what would your guess have been?
Probably something related to batting. Maybe something related to scoring tons. Because, let’s face it, all these three names above are batting all-rounders by designation.
Except it was not a batting feat that Asalanka went on to achieve.
In the aftermath of the second ODI in Colombo on August 4 (Sunday), Asalanka became only the third Sri Lankan captain in history to pick up multiple three-fers as skipper.
And how many matches as captain did he need to join the elite club? Two.
The 27-year-old might have had a very rough start to his full-time captaincy in T20Is, but so far, everything he’s touched has turned into gold in ODIs. It has turned out to be this way because of his golden arm, which has now ensured Sri Lanka will remain unbeaten in a bilateral series against India for the first time in 27 years.
91 balls bowled. 6 wickets taken. A wicket every 15 deliveries while maintaining an economy of 3.29, the best among all bowlers in the series.
It’s been a series for the ages so far for the Sri Lankan skipper, and, let’s be honest, absolutely no one saw this coming. Not with the CV he had.
India knew Asalanka was someone capable of rolling his arm over, but more in a Kraigg Brathwaite way than a Glenn Maxwell way. You know, someone who could be summoned to bowl if need be, but not really someone a captain would throw the ball to.
Before this series began, Asalanka had bowled more than 5 overs in an ODI just once. He’d never bowled more than 3 overs in a T20I and had, in fact, bowled more than one over in a T20I just once.
He was barely a part-timer. At least in the eyes of those who led him.
Asalanka, however, clearly rated himself far higher as a bowler, possessing the innate self-belief that he had it in him to make things happen.
Being handed the keys by the management, the 27-year-old has now showcased the entire world just how effective a bowler he is capable of being.
It’s not uncommon for part-timers to ‘luck out’ wickets, particularly in white-ball cricket, but Asalanka’s returns in this series haven’t been due to luck; they’ve been a byproduct of his excellence.
Across the first two ODIs, there was hardly a loose ball on offer from the arm of the Lankan skipper. A whopping 77.4% of Asalanka’s deliveries in the first two games were on a ‘good length’, an outrageous figure for someone who didn't bowl consistently before.
Such was Asalanka’s accuracy that he did not even deliver a single ‘short’ ball, let alone a long hop.
Remarkably enough, Asalanka’s near-perfect spells across both games came in a life-and-death situation for Sri Lanka.
In the first ODI, it was only in the 29th over of the chase that the skipper brought himself into the attack.
Sri Lanka had momentum thanks to the collapse India had just endured, but the Men in Blue were ultimately less than 100 shy of the target. With Axar Patel and KL Rahul in the middle and Shivam Dube yet to come, the contest was 50-50 at best, or maybe even slightly in India's favour.
From this situation, the off-spinner almost bowled unchanged for the remainder of the chase, with surreal consistency under immense pressure.
He got the huge scalp of the set Axar in the 41st over to tilt the game in the hosts’ favour — Dube was the only specialist batter left for India from that point — and then bowled a nerveless final over to clinch an impossible tie.
For Asalanka, the situation in the second ODI was not too dissimilar from the first.
India were 180/6 when he began the first over of an unchanged four-over spell, needing 61 more to win with Axar (44*) and Washington Sundar (12*) in the middle of a threatening 34-run stand.
However, as in the first game, it was once again Asalanka’s golden arm that tilted the contest in Sri Lanka’s favour, with the skipper sending Axar back to the hut for the second time in as many games, after beating his bat multiple times in the spell before the wicket.
India were still in with a sniff even after Axar’s dismissal, with Sundar replicating what Dube did in the first game, but Asalanka trapped the left-hander LBW in the very next over to all but seal the game for the hosts and make it two match-winning spells in as many games.
In the wake of the victory in the second ODI, the Lankan skipper downplayed his bowling efforts, opting to be modest.
“I am still mainly a batsman and after that I bowl a few overs,” Asalanka said, quashing suggestions that he is an all-rounder in the making.
These are early days, but if there’s one thing that Asalanka’s showing with the ball in this series has told us, it’s that he definitely is capable of hitting greater heights down the line; that this is just the beginning for him when it comes to impacting games with the ball.
From a pseudo-part-timer to a potential all-rounder in the span of two games — fair to say, Asalanka’s stint as the captain of the ODI side has gotten off to quite an interesting start.
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