Milan Rathnayake shines at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’

Milan Rathnayake walked in to bat on his Test debut on Wednesday (August 21) amidst the chaos. Opting to bat first, Sri Lanka were 113/7 when Rathnayake joined the skipper Dhananjaya de Silva. 

It looked like Sri Lanka would be bowled out within 50 overs. Rathnayake’s first-class record paints him as a lower-order batter in traditional terms. In 39 first-class matches, he averaged 16.1 with the bat, 5.3 in 45 List A matches and 10.4 in 22 T20s. 

Yet, de Silva didn’t shy away from handing him the strike. In the first 10 overs of their partnership, Rathnayake played 37 deliveries, scoring 16 runs. This phase brought 44 runs with de Silva upping the ante to contribute 28 from 23 balls. 

The duo revived Sri Lanka to post a respectable 236 on the board from 113/7. De Silva played a captain’s knock, scoring 74 off 84 deliveries. Rathnayake, batting at nine on debut, went past his highest first-class score of 59. He contributed 72 off 135 balls. It is the second-highest score on debut for a Sri Lankan batter against England. After de Silva’s departure (at 176/8), he added 60 more runs with the remaining two batters. 

Rathnayake's innings had a strange pattern. He scored 36 runs each against pace and spin. While against pace, his runs came at a strike rate of 67.9, the number plummeted to 43.9 against spin. That isn’t the strange part, though. 

Against pace, most of his runs came behind the wicket, and against spin, they were down the ground. 

Bowling to number nine, the England seamers bowled 60% of their deliveries in the short or back-of-a-length region. The spinners, with fewer options, bowled full and were struck down the ground. And when Joe Root dished a surprise bouncer at him, the left-hander had the pull shot in his kitty, which he top-edged for a couple of runs. Thus, Rathnayake adapted himself according to England’s bowling plans which the top-order failed to accomplish.

For the first 60 balls, the left-hander batted at a strike rate of 50. For the remaining 75 balls, which came after de Silva’s departure, he upped it a bit, striking at 56. He struck two sixes, the first of which took him to his maiden Test fifty in his first job in the whites for Sri Lanka. 

Even before this innings, the 28-year-old had shown plenty of promise in his batting at the first-class level with a constant improvement in his average over the years. 

Rathnayake began his cricketing career in Sri Lanka before moving to Australia to pursue his career. When cricket came to a halt there due to COVID, he returned to his native country and finally realized his dream of cracking the national team. 

Prior to this tour of England, Rathnayake was also picked for the one-off Test against Afghanistan in February but couldn’t make it to the XI. He was also part of Sri Lanka’s two-Test series in New Zealand in March 2023 but again spent his time on the bench. 

The debut has come late for Rathnayake but he has shown he belongs to the biggest stage. However, the job is not done. Sri Lanka need him to step up with his primary skill — bowling. 236 is a respectable total but still an underpar score after opting to bat first. And they would need every bit of Rathnayake, a right-arm medium-pacer, to keep the fight on. 

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