Kusal Mendis

Some Lesser Known Facts About Kusal Mendis

• Kusal Mendis is a Sri Lankan cricketer who is recognised as one of the best batsmen in Sri Lanka in the early 2020s. He captained them in several matches of the 2023 ODI World Cup.

• He started playing cricket while studying in school and later represented many teams in the domestic cricket. He captained the Sri Lanka Under-19 team in the 2006 Under-19 World Cup.
  

  

  

  

• Kusal Mendis scored 13 runs in the first innings and 39 runs in the second innings of his debut test match. He made his maiden test fifty with 53 runs during the second innings during the test against England in May 2016. He made his first test century with 176 runs in the second innings against Australia in July 2016.

  

• In the 2018 calendar year, he took the most catches (21) in the test matches and made 1023 runs at an average of 46.50 with 3 hundreds and 4 fifties. He made his first test double hundred with 245 runs against Ireland in April 2023.

  

• He made his first ODI fifty with 51 runs in his debut ODI match. He scored his first ODI century with 102 runs against Bangladesh on 28 March 2017.

  

• In the 2019 ODI World Cup held in England, he scored 143 runs in 7 matches at an average of 20.43 and a strike rate of 67.14 with the highest score of 46 runs against England. He played 9 matches in the 2023 ODI World Cup held in India and made 294 runs at an average of 32.67 and a strike rate of 113.95 with the highest score of 122 runs against Pakistan.

  

• He scored 21 runs in his debut T20I match. On 15 February 2018, he scored his first T20I half-century with 53 runs against Bangladesh. He helped the Sri Lankan team win the 2022 Asia Cup.

  

• Kusal Mendis was the highest runscorer for Sri Lanka in the 2022 T20 World Cup held in Australia and made 223 runs in 8 matches at an average of 31.86 and a strike rate of 142.95 with the highest score of 79 runs against the Netherlands.

  

• He became the captain of Sri Lanka during the 2023 ODI World Cup after Dasun Shanaka was ruled out of the squad due to an injury; he won 2 and lost 5 matches out of 7 matches of the World Cup.

  

• He was acquired by Galle Gladiators for Diamond A ($ 40,000; approx LKR 14 million) price category for the 2022 Lanka Premier League (LPL) season. Pretoria Capitals acquired him for R425,000 (approx. 8.925 million Sri Lankan rupees) for the 2022-23 SA20 season.

  

• His base price was Rs 50 lakh during the 2023 auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL), but he went unsold. ^[4]Hindustan Times

• After the match against India in the 2023 ODI World Cup, Mendis was asked if he would congratulate Virat Kohli on his record-equalling 49th ODI century, he asked why would he do that, following which many fans criticised him. Mendis later clarified that he did not understand the question and praised Virat Kohli by calling him a great batsman. ^[5]The Economic Times