Kusal Perera

Mathurage Don Kusal Janith Perera (born 17 August 1990), more commonly known as Kusal Perera, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer. He plays all forms of the game for the Sri Lanka national cricket team, and currently the permanent wicket keeper in all formats. He was a key member of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 winning team. He owned the joint second fastest fifty of all time in ODI history.

In domestic cricket, he plays for the Wayamba cricket team.^[1]

Early cricket

Educated at Kottawa Dharmapala Maha Vidyalaya,^[2] and Royal College Colombo, he has played for the Royal–Thomian annual cricket encounter.^[3] At the younger age of 11 to 13 years, Kusal was a right-handed batsman, but at the later age, He was moved into left-hand. This change was due to his passion for the master stroke play of Sanath Jayasuriya, which given Kusal to change his way of batting.

Domestic career

He recently played for Rajasthan Royals in IPL. Kusal made his One day international debut against Australia on January 13, 2013, replacing the injured Dinesh Chandimal. His debut Twenty20 International also came in the same series against Australia on January 26, 2013.

He is known as a quick scorer, and can hit the ball very hard which has a same batting style of former Sri Lanka legend Sanath Jayasuriya. In a first class match he scored 330 of 270 balls, which is a domestic record.

International career

ODI career

Perera was a part of a 15-man squad that toured Australia in January 2013. He made his debut in the 2nd ODI, where he came to bat on number 4 and scored an unbeaten 14 from 16 balls before Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets.

Perera hit his maiden ODI ton against Bangladesh on 22 February 2014. He scored 106 from 124 balls before getting bowled By Rubel Hossain. He won the "Man of the Match" award.

Perera was not qualified for the squad for 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup tournament due to poor performance against India and England. After the tournament starts, Dimuth Karunaratne was injured and Perera was called to the World Cup squad. He played his first World Cup match against Scotland on 11 March 2015, where he scored quick 24 runs. He was replaced to this match due to injury for Dinesh Chandimal against Australia.^[4] He opened the batting for Sri Lanka on quarter finals of the World Cup, where he failed again to score runs, only scored 3 runs. Sri Lanka eventually lost the match and quit from the World Cup as well.

After the retirement of two cricket legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena from ODIs, Kusal was brought to the squad as the permanent opening batsman with Tillakaratne Dilshan during ODI series against Pakistan. He just lost the first match for quick 26 runs in Dambulla. In the second match at Pallekele, Kusal smashed Pakistani pace bowlers to all the parts of the ground and scored the joint second fastest ODI fifty by 17 balls with his legendary master Sanath Jayasuriya 17-ball fifty in 1997. The shots of Kusal was described by the international commentators as the dawn of a new Little Sana, with just the same aggressive batting by Sanath in the past. The strike rate of Kusal's innings was 272 and it is now the highest strike rate in an innings of 50 or more runs by a Sri Lanka batsman in ODIs, which he also surpassed his master Jayasuriya's strike rate of 271.42 in 1996 against same opposition.^[5]

Sri Lanka scored 92 in 9 overs in the match until Kusal departs to 25-ball 68 runs, where Sri Lanka chased down 287 runs and won the match by 2 wickets at the end. This win gave the highest ever ODI run chase in Pallekele and second highest run chase in Sri Lankan soil.^[6]

During the 2nd ODI match against West Indies, Kusal got out to 99 runs, just one short to his third century. He is the fourth Sri Lankan player to get out in 99 in ODIs, the other three are Kaluwitharana single time, Jayasuriya in two times, and Dilshan single time. He is the 29th of all cricketers to dismissed in 99.^[7][8]

T20 International Career

Perera made his T20I debut in the first T20I against Australia in January 2013 and scored 33 from 22 balls before getting caught behind off Australian all rounder, Glenn Maxwell. In this match he hit some aggressive shots and many compared him with Sanath Jayasuriya.

On 13 December 2013 he scored 84 runs from 59 balls against Pakistan and Sri Lanka and went on to score a massive total of 211. Sri Lanka won the match by 24 runs and Perera earned the "Man of the Match" for the performance. Kusal is the current wicket-keeper in T20 internationals.

2014 World T20

On 22 March 2014 against South Africa, Perera scored 61 runs from just 40 balls. Sri Lanka won the match by 5 runs and Perera won the "Man of The Match" award. He scored 125 runs in the tournament at an average of 20.83 and an impressive strike rate of 145.48. He had some quick runs in the next matches, but failed to effect larger to the team. However, Sri Lanka won their first T20I title by defeating India in the final.

Test career

After the retirement of Kumar Sangakkara, his position remained vacant for a new player and Kusal was brought into the team. He made his Test debut for Sri Lanka against India on 28 August 2015. His arrival to the test team was not good at all, when he dropped Indian skipper Virat Kohli in fairly easy catch. But then he took 2 catches and 1 stumping in that innings. He showed his batting talents right on the first innings of the match, where he was the top scorer for Sri Lanka with 56 runs in first innings.^[9] In second innings as well, he scored 70 runs to be the 2nd Sri Lankan batsman to score 2 successive half centuries on Test debut after Dinesh Chandimal. But eventually Sri Lanka lost the match and also the series against India.^[10]

After cleared from doping suspects, Kusal replaced injured seamer Dhammika Prasad in Sri Lanka Test squad for the rest of the England tour.^[11][12] He played for the third test at Lord's and scored 42 runs in the first innings. Sri Lanka finally was able to drawn the match.^[13]

Perera scored his maiden Test century on 29 October 2016, against Zimbabwe in the first Test against the, at Harare. The score consisted wide range of thrashing shot, which was compared to Jayasuriya by Zimbabweans who witnessed this for the first time in their soil. Perera devastated the Zimbabwean bowling attack for 15 fours and two sixes, including taking debutant Carl Mumba for five fours in an over after the tea break.^[14]

Doping charge

Perera initially tested positive for a banned substance and was recalled from the New Zealand tour in December 2015. His urine sample was provided for a random test by the International Cricket Council during the home series against Pakistan in May 2015.^[15] He said that he took some medicine for a leech bite.^[16][17] After the A sample became positive, Kusal himself with the help of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board asked for the testing of the B sample, which was tested at Qatar. On 25 December 2015, the results of the B sample came back and it revealed that Kusal was positive for the banned substance. Meanwhile, Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara informed that there is a conspiracy behind this scandal is to withdraw Kusal from 2016 ICC World Twenty20 tournament due to his effectiveness in the format.^[18] If the B sample was positive, he was likely to face a four-year ban.^{[19][20][21][22]}

On 11 May 2016, he was cleared of the charges.^[23] The integrity of the laboratory that tested the sample was brought into question, with the ICC hiring an independent expert to find that the lab's outcome was not sustainable.^[23] Perera had spent some of his own money on fighting the charges, including travelling to the UK to undergo further tests to clear his name.^[24] After being cleared, Perera said that "I don't think there has been much damage done to my reputation", after the media, fans and Sri Lankan Cricket Board stood by him.^[24] On July 6, ICC has agreed to support Sri Lanka Cricket and Kusal Perera's claim for costs and damages from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).^[25]

International centuries

Test centuries

Test Centuries of Kusal Perera
No.	Score	Match	Against	Venue	City, Country	Season	Result
1	110	8	Zimbabwe	Harare Sports Club	Harare, Zimbabwe	2016	Won

One-Day International centuries

ODI Centuries of Kusal Perera
No.	Score	Match	Against	Venue	City, Country	Date	Result
1	106	22	Bangladesh	Shere Bangla National Stadium	Mirpur, Bangladesh	Feb 22, 2014	Won
2	116	48	Pakistan	MRIC Stadium	Hambantota, Sri Lanka	July 26, 2015	Won
3	135	53	Ireland	Malahide Cricket Club Ground	Malahide, Ireland	June 18, 2016	Won

Awards

One Day Internationals

Man of the Match awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	Bangladesh	Shere Bangla National Stadium	22 February 2014	106 (124 balls: 6x4, 5x6)	Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets.[26]
2	Pakistan	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium	15 July 2015	68 (25 balls: 13x4, 2x6)	Sri Lanka won by 2 wickets.[27]
3	Pakistan	MRIC Stadium	26 July 2015	116 (109 balls: 9x4, 4x6)	Sri Lanka won by 165 runs.[28]
3	West Indies	R Premadasa Stadium	4 November 2015	WK 1 ct. ; 99 (92 balls: 7x4, 3x6)	Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets (D/L).[29]

Player of the series awards

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	West Indies in Sri Lanka	2015/16	163 Runs (3 Matches, 2×50) with avg. 54.33 ; WK 4 ct.	Sri Lanka Won the series 3-0.[30]

Twenty20 International cricket

Man of the match awards

#	Series	Season	Opponent	Match Performance	Result
1	Bangladesh in Sri Lanka	2013	Bangladesh	64 runs (44 balls: 5x4, 4x6)	Sri Lanka won by 17 runs.[31]
2	New Zealand in Sri Lanka	2013	New Zealand	57 runs (37 balls: 6x4, 2x6)	Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets.[32]
3	Sri Lanka in UAE	2013	Pakistan	84 runs (59 balls: 5x4, 4x6)	Sri Lanka won by 24 runs.[33]
4	Sri Lanka in Bangladesh	2014	Bangladesh	64 runs (44 balls: 7x4, 1x6)	Sri Lanka won by 2 runs.[34]
5	2014 ICC World Twenty20	2014	South Africa	61 runs (40 balls: 6x4, 3x6)	Sri Lanka won by 5 runs.[35]

References

External links

• Player profile: Kusal Perera from ESPNcricinfo

Sri Lanka squad – 2014 Asia Cup (5th title)
69 Mathews (c) 8 Kusal 66 Thirimanne 11 Sangakkara 27 Jayawardene 1 Perera 7 Priyanjan 36 Chandimal (wk) 50 Chaturanga 99 Malinga 30 Prasad 82 Lakmal 18 Senanayake 40 Mendis Coach: Farbrace

Sri Lanka squad – 2014 ICC World Twenty20 (1st Title)
36 Chandimal (c) & (wk) 99 Malinga (vc) 23 Dilshan 14 Herath 27 Jayawardene 92 Kulasekara 82 Lakmal 69 Mathews 40 Mendis 8 MDKJ Perera 1 NLTC Perera 41 Prasanna 11 Sangakkara (wk) 18 Senanayake 66 Thirimanne Coach: Farbrace