The Kamindu Mendis effect

There’s been a recent uptick in the fortunes of the Sri Lanka Test team for a side which has seen a slow decline since the retirement of their golden generation of the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan in the early part of the 2010s.

Whilst Sri Lanka have certainly produced some high quality players since that time, there have not been the same sort of highs as there were of the previous generation and for the last decade, trips to Sri Lanka had become far easier than they once were.

Sri Lanka have now won 6 Tests this year, the first time they have achieved this feat since 2006 and not through lack of quality opposition. This year Sri Lanka have taken Test series wins over New Zealand, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and also won a game in a 2-1 defeat in England.

The context of Sri Lanka’s victory over New Zealand became even more prominent in the proceeding weeks as the latter became the first side since 2012 to beat India in India.

Sanath Jayasuriya’s appointment seems to have given Sri Lanka a much needed lift since Chris Silverwood resigned in June of this year. One key decision even prior to his resignation was the first appearance in nearly 2 years of 25 year old Kamindu Mendis.

Since then, Mendis has picked up 5 Hundreds in just 8 Tests, averaging 91.27 and passing 1000 runs inside 13 innings - a feat he shares with Bradman. The cliche of batters being the ‘Best Since Bradman’ aside - Mendis has breathed fresh air into an aging Sri Lanka line up. Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews and Dhananjaya de Silva are all upwards of 33 years of age and Kamindu injects slightly more youth into the batting line up. Their top order is one of the most experienced in the game at the moment but it's clear that the future needs to be considered too.

More impressively, most of these runs came at 7 - his initial introduction into the side was as an all rounder. Such was his quantity of runs, his position was moved up the order to 5 and the runs kept coming. His bowling has hardly been called for.

In doing so, Mendis has jumped from obscurity to 10th in the Test batting rankings and given Sri Lanka an outside chance (if other results go their way) of making it to the Test Championship Final. It goes without saying that this far exceeds where most would have predicted Sri Lanka in the table at this stage.

Indeed, the buzz around a Sri Lankan in the Test arena has been seldom seen in the last decade as they have often failed to excite in the same ways as they once did. Seemingly now, Sri Lanka’s impact is beginning to infiltrate the mainstream cricket conversation.

Whilst Sri Lanka are far from being the finished article, Kamindu certainly seems to complete a large part of the puzzle.

Sri Lanka currently have the capability to bat a side out of a game but they still require the sort of bowlers to back up the batters. Prabath Jayasuriya and Asitha Fernando have shown that they’re up to the standard and there have been moments where other bowlers have held their hands up too.

Consistency will be key though and they have had the luxury of Kamindu's hot streak to get them over the line in the last 6 months. His purple patch cannot go on forever though and a tough tour away in South Africa will be a great test of his, and Sri Lanka’s, mettle.

Perhaps the failings in the first half of the Test Championship will undo the hard work of the last 6 months but the next edition could perhaps be the final to aim for.

Whilst there is unlikely to be many more than 12 Tests for the Sri Lankans between 2025-27 - they’ll be hoping that the best is yet to come from Kamindu.