Thilan Samaraweera Profile

Thilan Samaraweera

Thilan Samaraweera's batting will not fill a stadium; yet, in a batting line-up of flamboyant strokeplayers, his patience and solidity offers a vital balancing factor. In his second avatar he has added more strokes to make his batting more well-rounded, but what Samaraweera does best is wear bowlers down through patient and relentless accumulation. His batting is built around reserves of resilience, determination and sheer toughness, and he had to draw into them all to overcome the trauma of cricket's darkest hours - the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

 Samaraweera will forever be remembered for not letting a bullet injury end his international career. He was in his best form, having scored two consecutive double-centuries in Pakistan, when his team bus came under fire in March 2009 and a bullet penetrated 12 inches into his left thigh. He needed surgery and spent three months dealing with the physical and mental wounds of his ordeal. That Samaraweera returned to play his 50th Test in July was a triumph of his strength of character. His return was a second coming after he had begun his career with a hundred on debut against India in 2001.

 The retirements of Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratne gave Samaraweera a run in the middle order but indifferent form in 2006 led to him being dropped. He returned 18 months later, a more aggressive, prolific batsman and yet remained as solid as he was before, reigniting his career with a century against India in July 2008. It was the beginning of a purple patch which continued even after his run-in with gunmen. Despite all the runs Samaraweera has scored, question-marks remain due to his relative lack of success outside the subcontinent. The extent to which he rectifies that statistic will probably decide where Samaraweera will rank among the Sri Lankan greats.

Full name Thilan Thusara Samaraweera

Born September 22, 1976, Colombo

Current age 35 years 33 days

Major teams Sri Lanka, Colts Cricket Club, Kandurata, Sinhalese Sports Club, Sri Lanka A, Sri Lanka Board President's XI

Playing role Batsman

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	68	108	19	4683	231	52.61	9767	47.94	12	27	548	7	40	0
ODIs	53	42	11	862	105*	27.80	1244	69.29	2	0	76	0	17	0
First-class	231	325	59	12901	231	48.50			33	65			184	0
List A	172	127	36	2948	105*	32.39			2	16			59	0
Twenty20	16	15	2	436	70	33.53	315	138.41	0	4	51	11	3	0

Bowling averages

Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	68	33	1315	686	15	4/49	6/67	45.73	3.13	87.6	1	0	0
ODIs	53	17	702	542	11	3/34	3/34	49.27	4.63	63.8	0	0	0
First-class	231		17560	8194	349	6/55		23.47	2.79	50.3		15	2
List A	172		4669	3114	109	7/30	7/30	28.56	4.00	42.8	0	2	0
Twenty20	16	3	56	57	3	3/17	3/17	19.00	6.10	18.6	0	0	0

Career statistics

 

Test debut	Sri Lanka v India at Colombo (SSC), Aug 29-Sep 2, 2001
Last Test	Sri Lanka v Australia at Pallekele, Sep 8-12, 2011

ODI debut	India v Sri Lanka at Sharjah, Nov 6, 1998
Last ODI	India v Sri Lanka at Mumbai, Apr 2, 2011

First-class debut	1995/96
Last First-class	Sri Lanka v Australia at Pallekele, Sep 8-12, 2011
List A debut	1995/96
Last List A	India v Sri Lanka at Mumbai, Apr 2, 2011
Twenty20 debut	Burgher Recreation Club v Sinhalese Sports Club at Colombo (NCC), Aug 17, 2004
Last Twenty20	Ruhuna v Wayamba at Colombo (RPS), Jul 31, 2011