Pinnaduwage Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva (Sinhala: වනිඳු හසරංග, [ˈʋaniⁿd̪uɦasəraŋgə][n. 1]; born 29 July 1997), better known as Wanindu Hasaranga, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who currently plays limited over internationals and a former T20I captain. He plays for the Sri Lanka cricket team in white ball cricket as a Bowling All rounder.[1] Regarded as one of the best bowlers in the T20 format, Hasaranga is a Right-arm Googly bowler. Even though googly is a variation of a traditional Leg Spinner, Hasaranga use googlies all the time rarely he bowls a Leg break, His main stock delivery is googly and he has a additional variation of Leg spin.
Hasaranga made his international debut for Sri Lanka in July 2017.[1] His elder brother, Chaturanga de Silva, has also represented the national team.[2] Hasaranga made history when he took the first ever hat-trick for Sri Lanka in a T20 World Cup during the 2021 edition of the tournament, and being the first Sri Lankan on an ODI debut to take a hat-trick. He resigned as the captain on 11th of July 2024. The reason for the resignation suggests due to his poor captaincy and performance in the T20 World Cup 2024.
At the age of 16, he played as a frontline seam bowler and even opened the bowling for Richmonds College cricket team. However, he switched to bowling leg-spin after witnessing a demonstration by his coach Lanka de Silva who taught him on how to bowl leg spin. He soon followed the footsteps of his coach and transformed into a leg-spinner. It was the coach who identified the potential on him to convert him into a leg-spinner after realizing Hasaranga's great arm speed. He also underwent a pace-to-spin bowling transformation workshop and also took part in an age group 50 over local tournament at the age of 17 where he bagged a tally of 28 wickets in just 6 matches.[4]
Domestic and franchise career
Hasaranga made his List A debut on 30 November 2015 in the AIA Premier Limited Over Tournament.[5] In December 2015, he was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.[6] He took seven wickets in the 2016 U19 World Cup which also included a match winning bowling performance of 3/34 against England in the quarter-final of the tournament to help Sri Lanka reach semi-final stage.[7][8]
In November 2017, Hasaranga was named the most promising player in domestic cricket for the 2016–17 season at Sri Lanka Cricket's annual awards.[10] He gained limelight for his all-round efforts scoring 586 runs including a century averaging just under 40 with a strike rate of 93 and taking 15 wickets including a five-wicket haul in the 2016-17 domestic FC season.[11][12]
Hasaranga was named to Sri Lanka's One Day International (ODI) squad for their series against Zimbabwe.[30] He made his ODI debut for Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe on 2 July 2017.[31] In his debut match, he took the final three Zimbabwe wickets in the innings in three consecutive deliveries, becoming the youngest bowler to take a hat-trick on debut in an ODI.[32] He was also the third debutant in ODI history to claim a hat-trick after Bangladeshi Taijul Islam and South African Kagiso Rabada.[33] He also became the first leg-spinner to take a hat-trick in ODI history.[34]
In May 2018, Hasaranga was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season.[35][36] In August 2019, he was named in Sri Lanka's Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for their series against New Zealand.[37] He made his T20I debut for Sri Lanka, against New Zealand, on 1 September 2019.[38]
In September 2019, Hasaranga was included as the only specialist spinner for the Pakistan series in Pakistan, where many major players withdrew from the team due to security concerns. During the T20I series, he took eight wickets, where Sri Lanka dominated against Pakistan. Sri Lanka won all three matches and whitewashed Pakistan for the first time. It was Sri Lanka's first ever series win against Pakistan in a T20I bilateral series.[39] Sri Lanka went on to win the final T20I match by 13 runs, winning the series 3–0.[40] It was the first time in a three-match T20I series that Sri Lanka had won 3–0, and the first time that Pakistan had been whitewashed.[41] Due to his match winning all round performances, Hasaranga was adjudged as man of the match in the third T20I as well as was adjudged player of the series.
During the ODI series against West Indies in March 2020, Hasaranga showed his all round talent where he took crucial wickets at the right time and scored match winning knocks.[42] In the first ODI, he scored match winning unbeaten 42 runs to seal the game for Sri Lanka by 1 wicket.[43] He also won the man off the match award. In second and third ODI, he delivered the most economical spells for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka won the series 3–0 with Hasaranga winning player of the series award.[44]
In December 2020, Hasaranga was named in Sri Lanka's Test squad for their series against South Africa.[45] He made his Test debut for Sri Lanka, against South Africa, on 26 December 2020.[46] He took four wickets in the match for 171 runs. In the second innings, Hasaranga scored his maiden Test fifty.[47]
On 14 March 2021, in the third ODI against the West Indies, Hasaranga scored his maiden ODI half century. He along with Ashen Bandara put on an unbeaten 123 run seventh wicket stand in the match.[48] He also registered the highest individual score for Sri Lanka batting at number 8 or lower with scoring unbeaten 80 off just 60 deliveries breaking the previous record held by Nuwan Kulasekara.[49]
Rising through ranks
After many economical bowling spells in the T20I series against England and India, Hasaranga achieved second rank in the ICC T20I rankings in July 2021.[50][51] In July 2021, during the series against India, Hasaranga took four wickets in the third T20I match.[52] He also broke the record of Imran Tahir for registering the best ever bowling spell in a T20I match on birthday with an economic spell of 4/9 in four overs.[53] He won the player of the match award and was also named the player of the series.[54]
In September 2021, Hasaranga was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.[55] On 30 October 2021, in Sri Lanka's match against South Africa, Hasaranga became the first bowler for Sri Lanka to take a hat-trick in a T20 World Cup match.[56] On 1 November 2021, in the match against England, Hasaranga took his 50th wicket in T20I cricket.[57] He ended the 2021 ICC World Twenty20 as the leading wicket taker of the tournament and broke the record of Ajantha Mendis for having taken the most wickets in a single edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup after finishing the 2021 edition with 16 wickets.[58] Out of the 16 scalps, 10 of them came in the Super 12 stage of the tournament.[59]
In November 2021, he achieved his career best ranking in ICC T20I bowling rankings when he topped the rankings for the first time in his career.[60] He became only the second Sri Lankan after Ajantha Mendis to become no 1 bowler in ICC T20I rankings.[61] In the same month, he also reached career best third rank in ICC T20I rankings for all-rounders.[62] He also equalled with South Africa's Tabraiz Shamsi for taking most number of wickets in T20Is in a single calendar year.[63] Both of them took the same tally of 36 dismissals in 2021 to end up as joint-leading wicket-takers across all T20I matches in 2021.[64]
In the annual ICC Awards in January 2022, Wanindu Hasaranga was included in the ICC Men's ODI Team of the Year,[65] and the ICC Men's T20I Team of the Year.[66] During the 2022 Asia Cup, Hasaranga made match-winning all-round performances against Bangladesh and Pakistan. Against Pakistan in the Super 4 match, Hasaranga took 3 wickets for 21 runs and Pakistan finally bowled out for 121 runs. Sri Lanka won the match by 5 wickets and Hasaranga won the man of the match award as well.[67] In the final against Pakistan, Sri Lanka batted first and restricted to 58/5 in 8.5 overs. However, along with Bhanuka Rajapaksa, he made a match-winning partnership of 58-runs, where Sri Lanka posted 170 runs.[68] Sri Lanka eventually won the match and became sixth time Asia Cup champions. Hasaranga was adjudged player of the tournament for his all-round performances.[69] Due to his performances with 36 runs and 3/27, Hasaranga became only the second player after West Indian Carlos Brathwaite, to score 30-plus runs and three-plus wickets in a men's T20I knockout between two Full-Member nations.[70]
The annual ICC Awards in January 2023 saw Hasaranga get included in the 2022 T20i Team for the second consecutive year. In June 2023, Hasaranga was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe.[71] In the opening match, Hasaranga took 6 wickets against UAE picking up his first 6-wicket haul in ODIs. Against Afghanistan in February 2024 in second T20I, Hasaranga became the second fastest bowler after Afghan Rashid Khan to claim 100 T20 international wickets.[72][73]
