3 reasons why Kamindu Mendis could finish as a great player for Sri Lanka
All the discussion from a brilliant Test between England and Sri Lanka has either been about the host players -- Joe Root, Ollie Pope and so on -- or around the ball-change controversy, which might continue to rage on for a few more days.
But one record-breaking superstar has gone missing. In just his fourth Test, Kamindu Mendis equalled former wicketkeeper batter Prasanna Jayawardene's all-time record of three Test centuries while batting at number seven or below.
It wasn't just any other century. Mendis helped Sri Lanka recover from 95-4 in the third innings when they were still trailing England in the Test. His 113 (183), including 15 boundaries and a six, also oversaw that phase when the ball was changed and started jagging around.
He got dropped once and England let him off with a few half-chances too but still, he looked the most comfortable on the occasionally misbehaving Old Trafford wicket between both teams.
It's often hard to judge whether a player is just a hit-or-miss star riding an early wave of form when most oppositions haven't discovered him or if he's a genuine breakthrough talent. But some metrics can be applied to all young cricketers to try and make a prediction about their success.
Below we have tried something similar, in our guess that Mendis is the next big thing in Sri Lankan cricket. It needs to be noted that Mendis is a brilliant, ambidextrous bowler but we are limiting this analysis to his batting. Check it out:
#3 Stellar consistency across formats
The possibility of success for a cricketer goes significantly lower if there's a big gap in their abilities across formats. The best players may not play internationally in all three formats but maintain at least a decent standard everywhere, especially at the start of their careers.
Mendis is currently averaging over 92 in Tests. No one in Sri Lanka has better numbers than him in first-class cricket since his debut in 2008. Overall in the world, his average is the fifth-best in this period.
He already is a brilliant Test player for Sri Lanka. But it doesn't seem like he'd be satisfied with that.
Not too long before his stellar Test run, he scored a Player of the Match-worthy 54 (36) in the Lanka Premier League 2024 Eliminator. He finished 10th in the run-scoring chart in the tournament, with those above him either much more experienced Sri Lankan stars or overseas signings.
He's the ninth-highest run-scorer across formats in 2024 with an overall average of 50 -- something which would probably get better as this England series goes on. There's so much consistency there that even the most pessimistic Sri Lankan fans must be seeing something special brewing for them.
#2 A technique that's flooring experts
Kumar Sangakkara has, multiple times, given the simplest explanation of the technique needed to play in England: defend straight, hit square.
Mendis epitomised that in this series, as he has done all his career. Two things about him stand out: a) his bat comes down dead-straight when he defends on the front foot and b) he has multiple shots to hit square of the wicket on the same ball, so gap-finding comes effortlessly to him.
This holds him in great stead for all SENA countries, and even in sub-continent nations, where you need to hit more in the 'V'. He knows how to make it work, as his runs against Australia and Bangladesh showed.
Moreover, he has the nagging ability to willingly play the ball extremely late, often when it has passed a foot behind his crease, which is always a good sign in young players starting out in Tests. This means even in conditions where the movement off the tracks or in the air would be excessive, he'd be able to manage better than most.
#1 Ability to reverse pressure
Some players can stand pressure and go through difficult phases without making the situation worse for their team. But then some can change the momentum of an innings despite pressure being at its peak.
Rishabh Pant and Ben Stokes are examples of the latter. Mendis has shown good signs -- like the way he never stopped going for his shots in different phases of the knock, and how he took on Mark Wood with the pull shot -- of falling into the same category.
"He is unbelievable," Chandimal said of Mendis in a media interaction after the match. "First tour to England with the national team, in the first game scoring a century. It's a wonderful thing to do, he is a world class player as far as I'm concerned. I took two tours to make a hundred in England but he has done that very easily. He is a fine player, a player like him, if he can come and play in county cricket for one or two years, it will be really good for him, for his future."
"The positive mindset (on his approach). When I had a chat with him when he came for lunch, I asked him, what is the secret and he said that he is in a positive mind. He is a player like that and it is really good for the team," he further added.
Chandimal has been around the Sri Lankan team forever now and even he seems to see Mendis as an outlier, something different for his team. Now it's on the 25-year-old all-rounder to fulfill that potential.