5 Sri Lankan Players who made their Test debut against India
India and Sri Lanka have a rich cricket history with their rivalry dating back to 1979. Both the countries have blessed the cricket world with some legendary players who have enriched the history of the game. The rivalry between the two Asian cricketing giants has always given birth to riveting contests.
The reason behind such great contests was the presence of some of the greats of the game on both sides.
While India had the likes of Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly, Sri Lanka had Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela jayawardene, Muttiah Muralitharan among others.
However, only a few of them have gone on to make their international debuts in this kind of exciting contest. Some shone like a bright star afterwards in their career and some disappeared into obscurity. Let us now have a look at five of those Sri Lankan Cricketers who made their Test debut against India:
#1) Mahela Jayawardene
Legendary former Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene, made his international debut against India.
It was that famous Test match at Colombo, in August 1997, which witnessed prolific batting displays from both Indian and Sri Lankan batsmen.
India had posted a mammoth first innings total of 537/8 riding on centuries from Sachin Tendulkar (143), Mohammad Azharuddin (126) and Navjot Singh Sidhu (111).
Sri Lanka, in reply, kept batting till the end of the match posting a Himalayan total of 952/6d courtesy a triple ton from Sanath Jayasuriya (340), a double ton from Roshan Mahanama (225) and a century from Aravinda de Silva (126) .
Jayawardene also shone with the bat in that match. Making his way to a promising 66 (105) batting at No.6, he gave a glimpse of what was about to come in the future. He retired with 25,957 runs to his name in 652 international matches - which include a total of 54 centuries and 136 half-centuries.
He is now a living legend and among one of the greatest cricketers of all-time.