Sublime Sanga!

He may not be the most celebrated batsman, he may not be the most popular player going around but you will struggle to find those who wouldn’t call Kumar Sangakkara as one of cricket’s leading batsman in modern times. There is lot to adore about Sangakkara and his game; comes across as a natural gentleman, professional on the field and a studious character off it. He has kept wickets, batted across positions, led the side to World Cup finals and yet you sense he hasn’t received his due credit.

His test career is staggering; stands 11^th on the list of highest run getters, 3^rd best all-time number 3 batsman, has effected 187 dismissals, has the second best average amongst players with more than 8500 career runs! His partnerships alongside Mahela have been monumental and a source of strength for Sri Lankan batting to script wins.

Sangakkara has played in an era when Ponting, Tendulkar, Dravid, Kallis, Mahela were the leading names in test cricket, yet has managed to carve a niche for himself. His ODI career (as a batsman) too has been more than impressive. He has adapted to T20 cricket seamlessly, an indicator of the quality of his batsmanship! Cometh the hour cometh the man they say, and Sangakkara has been the man for SL over the last decade. It is one thing to be a part of a strong batting unit and another of shouldering responsibility of a relatively inexperienced line-up.

Sri Lanka vs Pakistan was always going to be a very good contest, especially with either side looking to develop a team out of a pool of youngsters. Thus it was invariably going to boil down to the experienced names in the two teams to decide the fate of the series. With both Sangakkara and Mahela struggling in the ODI series, Pakistan would have felt that they had a more than good chance going into the test series, despite momentum lying with the opposite camp.

Those acquainted with stats and numbers would be pretty aware of the track record Galle possesses. With a few exceptions, the track at Galle is a first-innings track; win the toss and bat out the opposition. Sri Lanka would have been aware of this facet, but needed somebody to step up. Sangakkara would be disappointed to have missed out on a double ton, but would be more than satisfied with his efforts and with the way things stand in the test at the moment.

Using his experience like a skillful worker he crafted out a classy and mighty effective knock on a tricky track, and against quality spin bowling. Yes he had the track at his disposal, but scoring 42% of the team total on not-so-flat batting surface indicates sheer dominance. When Dilshan was going strong, he chose to play second fiddle and kept the run-rate going but when wickets started tumbling he came forward to counter the tough phase.

Sangakkara has 28 tons to his name, and only 4 times out of them has Sri Lanka lost a match; this one too doesn’t seem to change that stat. Mahela with his sheer class, temperament and match-winning ability has marginally overshadowed what Sangakkara has done for Sri Lanka; a parallel to how Dravid is looked at with respect to Tendulkar. Sangakkara started off as a wicket keeper who could bat, of the mould of Kalu, but has transformed into an infallible number 3 test batsman and an exceptional wicketkeeper-batsman in the limited overs format. 

Very often he is looked upon and compared to contemporary greats as a wicket keeper, but his startling ability to reproduce outstanding knocks with a more-than-satisfactory consistency should prompt everybody to look at him as one of the finest batsman of the modern era. At 34, you sense he doesn’t have too many years ahead of him but whatever he has to offer should be of the highest quality!