Nuwan Kulasekara

Kulasekara Mudiyanselage Dinesh Nuwan Kulasekara (Sinhalese: කුලසේකර මුදියන්සේලාගේ නුවන් කුලසේකර ; born 22 July 1982 in Nittambuwa) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer. He was educated at the Bandaranayake College, Gampaha. A useful and effective medium pace bowler, who can swing the ball in first few overs, and also can bat in late overs, Kulasekara is regarded as one of the best swing bowlers in the world, who once ranked number one in the ODI bowlers rankings as well.

In June 2016 he retired from Test cricket, due to major concern to play limited over cricket.^[1]

International debut

Kulasekara made his One Day International debut against England at Dambulla on 18 November 2003. He took 2–19 as England were bowled out for 88, and Sri Lanka took less than 14 overs to win by 10 wickets.

He made his Test cricket debut against New Zealand at Napier on 4 April 2005. He took only one wicket, and scored a duck, as the match was drawn.

IPL 2011

Kulasekara joined the Chennai Super Kings for a price of $100,000 to play for their team in the IPL 2011.^[2]

Bowling style

Kulasekara, who hustles in from a long run–up, has a lovely smooth action which helps him to hurl the ball at a lively pace, getting enough seam movement both ways to trouble the batsman. His skills lie in his ability to produce inswing, and he is well known for his moderate nature to the batsmen, seldom being overly aggressive.^[3]

Breakthrough

He gained attention to international scene in 2008, when he took 47 wickets, which propelled him to the top spot in the ICC ODI rankings for bowlers. The retirement of Chaminda Vaas and the inconsistency of Lasith Malinga proved to be a boon for Kulasekara, as he leapfrogged them, to emerge as the strike bowler of the Lankan side.

He scored his first Test fifty against England in the 1st Test at Lord's in May 2006, batting out much of the fifth day to save the match.

He was the No. 1 ranked ODI bowler for a few months in 2009, when he reached his highest ratings (727).^[4]

He is currently ranked in sixth place of bowling both in the world ODI and T20I formats due to his ability to swing the ball both in and out.

He picked up his first five-wicket haul in 3rd ODI against Australia at Brisbane on 18 January 2013, which was recorded as his best bowling figures 5/22 in ODI career.^[5]

Batting

Kulasekara has often played some late order cameos in the shorter format of the game and employs a daring approach with the willow at the crease. A sturdy batsman, he has proved to be quite a tough man to dislodge in the Test format. In ODI's, he is occasionally sent in as a pinch hitter for Sri Lanka, notably with a score of 58* in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy to assist Kumar Sangakkara in beating England, in the second group game^[6] and a thrilling score of 74 against Australia for a close defeat.^[7]

Arrest

Kulasekara was detained by Kadawatha police on 19 September 2016, after being involved in a road accident.^[8][9] However, Kulasekara produced before the Mahara Magistrate and has been released on bail of five lakhs due to the death of a 28-year-old motorcycle rider from the accident.^[10][11] The accident occurred near the Kirillawella junction in Kadawatha in the afternoon, where the rider was coming opposite side to the Kulasekara's vehicle and has overtaken a bus and then crashed onto its bund, where he thrown onto patch of Kulasekara's vehicle.^[12] After the incident, of Kulasekara's father paid his condolences to the dead rider's family, where his mother then told that both Kulasekara and his son went to the same school. His mother also told that his son was very fond of sports and also a fan of Kulasekara.^[13]

International performances

One Day International half-centuries

ODI half-centuries of Nuwan Kulasekara
	Runs	Balls	Against	City/country	Venue	Year
[1]	57*	56	New Zealand	Johannesburg, South Africa	New Wanderers Stadium	2009
[2]	73	43	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	Brisbane Cricket Ground	2012
[3]	58*	38	England	London, England	Kennington Oval	2013
[4]	58	169	New Zealand	Christchurch, New Zealand	Hagley Oval	2015

International five-wicket hauls

ODI 5-wicket hauls

#	Figures	Match	Opponent	Venue	City	Country	Year
1	5/22	129	Australia	The Gabba	Brisbane	Australia	2013

International awards

Test Cricket

Player of the Series awards

• In this table Ct., refers to the Catches.

S No	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	Pakistan in Sri Lanka Test Series	2009	75 runs ; 17 wickets (3 Matches).	Sri Lanka Won the series 2–0[14]

Man of the match awards

• In this table Ct., refers to the Catches.

S No	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	2nd Test – Pakistan in Sri Lanka Test Series	2009	1st Innings – 11 ; 4/21. 2nd Innings - DNB ; 4/37.	Sri Lanka Won by 7 wickets[15]

One-Day International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	India	R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	29 August 2008	9–2–40–4; DNB. 1 ct.	Sri Lanka won by 112 wickets.[16]
2	India	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka	13 January 2010	DNB; 10-0-48-4	Sri Lanka won by 4 wickets.[17]
3	India	The Gabba, Brisbane	21 February 2012	DNB; 9-0-40-3. 2 ct.	Sri Lanka won by 51 runs.[18]
4	Australia	The Gabba, Brisbane	18 January 2013	DNB; 10-2-22-5.	Sri Lanka won by 4 wickets.[19]
5	Australia	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	20 January 2013	DNB; 10-2-30-3. 1 ct.	No result.[20]

Player of the series awards

Twenty20 International Cricket

Man of the match awards

#	Series	Date	Opponent	Match Performance	Result
1	New Zealand v Sri Lanka in USA	23 My 2010	New Zealand	DNB ; 3-1-4-3.	Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets.[22]

Player of the series awards

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	Sri Lanka in Bangladesh	2014	33 runs & 4 wickets (2 matches)	Sri Lanka won the series 2-0.[23]

References

External links

• Player profile: Nuwan Kulasekara from ESPNcricinfo
• Player profile: Nuwan Kulasekara from CricketArchive

Sri Lanka Squads
Sri Lanka squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup Runners-Up 1 Jayawardene (c) 2 Atapattu 3 Jayasuriya 4 Tharanga 5 Sangakkara 6 Dilshan 7 Arnold 8 Silva 9 Maharoof 10 Vaas 11 Fernando 12 Malinga 13 Kulasekara 14 Muralitharan 15 Bandara Coach: Moody Sri Lanka squad – 2008 Asia Cup (4th title) 1 Jayawardene (c) 2 Fernando 3 Jayasuriya 4 Sangakkara(wk) 5 Kapugedera 6 Dilshan 7 Kulasekara 8 Muralitharan (wk) 9 Vaas 10 Thushara 11 Udawatte 12 Weeraratne 13 Mendis 14 Maharoof 15 Silva 16 Mubarak Sri Lanka squad – 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Runners-Up 1 Sangakkara (c) 2 de Saram 3 Dilshan 4 Jayasuriya 5 Jayawardene 6 Kulasekara 7 Maharoof 8 Malinga 9 Mathews 10 Mendis 11 Mubarak 12 Muralitharan 13 Silva 14 Thushara 15 Udana Coach: Bayliss Sri Lanka squad – 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Semi-Finalists 1 Thisara 2 Chandimal 3 Dilshan 4 Jayasinghe 5 Jayasuriya 6 Jayawardene 7 Kapugedera 8 Kulasekara 9 Malinga 10 Mathews 11 Mendis 12 Muralitharan 13 Sangakkara (c) 14 Randiv 15 Welegedara Coach: Bayliss Sri Lanka squad – 2011 Cricket World Cup Runners-Up 1 Sangakkara (c & wk) 2 Jayawardene 3 Dilshan 4 Tharanga 5 Samaraweera 6 Silva 7 Kapugedera 8 Randiv 9 Perera 10 Kulasekara 11 Fernando 12 Malinga 13 Mendis 14 Muralitharan 15 Herath Coach: Bayliss Suraj Randiv replaced Angelo Mathews due to injury Sri Lanka squad – 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Runners-Up 1 Perera 4 Dananjaya 9 J. Mendis 11 Sangakkara (wk) 14 Herath 17 Chandimal 22 Eranga 23 Dilshan 24 Munaweera 27 Jayawardene (c) 40 A. Mendis 66 Thirimanne 69 Mathews 92 Kulasekara 99 Malinga Coach: Ford 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 Sri Lanka squad – 2015 Cricket World Cup 1 Perera 9 Mendis 11 Sangakkara (wk) 14 Herath 16 Chameera 18 Senanayake 21 Karunaratne 23 Dilshan 27 Jayawardene 36 Chandimal (wk) 66 Thirimanne 69 Mathews (c) 82 Lakmal 92 Kulasekara 99 Malinga 41 Prasanna 34 Kaushal Coach: Atapattu Chameera was named as a replacement player for Dhammika Prasad & Kaushal was named as a replacement player for Rangana Herath. Sri Lanka squad – 2016 ICC World Twenty20 69 Mathews (c) Chameera 17 Chandimal (vc) (wk) 23 Dilshan 14 Herath Jayasuriya Kapugedera 92 Kulasekara 82 Lakmal 99 Malinga 1 Perera 18 Senanayake Shanaka Siriwardana 66 Thirimanne Coach: Graham Ford Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Thirimanne was not initially in the squad, but was named as replacement for Jeffrey Vandersay and Niroshan Dickwella.