Ashley Chandrasinghe’s rise to become cricket’s newest prospect

Victorian cricket‘s newest prospect opens up on the difficult decisions he made to even kick start his career.

Ashley Chandrasinghe’s astonishing maiden century on Shield debut has started thousands of conversations about the youngster nationwide and made him one of the biggest prospects in the country.

Coming in at number three against a high-profile Tasmanian line-up, the 20-year-old managed to put former Australian test bowlers Peter Siddle and Jackson Bird to the sword as well as IPL speed demon Riley Meredith.

It wasn’t rapid scoring that did the job, it was his trademark grind that won him the battle and left the Tassies with no answers, including former Australian test captain Tim Paine.

Ashley Chandrasinghe hits an elegant pull shot against Tasmania on Sheffield Shield debut for Victoria at Blundstone Arena. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

It was a sight to behold as the youngster announced himself to the domestic competition with a player-of-the-match 119 not out off 333 balls.

Worthy to note, it wasn’t the first time Chandrasinghe of Sri Lankan background had entered a new scene in this fashion.

The Casey South Melbourne left hander did it against Northcote in season 2019-20 when he made a century on 1st XI premier debut.

He scored a mammoth 144 off 286 balls that day, setting his side up for a convincing declaration at 332.

Chandrasinghe said he took lessons from the experience into his first-class debut.

“I tried to think about how I handled the first XI debut and tried to follow the same sort of process and I stuck to that,” Chandrasinghe said.

“The main thing was understanding that whether I do perform or don’t perform, I got to be humble.

“Whatever happens I still need to come back and play the next game and prove myself regardless of the individual performance.

“So that was pretty much the thought process going into the game, either way perform or not perform, I still got to come back and play the next game.”

There is every chance he would have taken these lessons into his second XI debut on September 12 this year as well where he made 56 and 68.

Ashley Chandrasinghe celebrating his century on 1XI debut for Casey South Melbourne.

Following Chandrasinghe’s maiden century for Casey South Melbourne in January 2020, Covid hit and the season was ended early.

Chandrasinghe’s off-season plans to go to the Northern Territory to play a season of cricket in his first year out of school were thrown into disarray.

Eventually the Darwin premier cricket season got underway and Chandrasinghe made it to the top end.

He batted seven times that season and scored two promising half centuries of 86 and 61 for the Waratahs.

As the Darwin Covid interrupted season was coming to a close, the virus was still lingering in Melbourne which caused an indefinite delay to the season.

At this point Chandrasinghe was in Darwin contemplating what to do as cricket seasons around the country were on track to begin on time while the Victorian season was in doubt of starting before Christmas.

“It was quite a funny time,” he said.

“I was in Darwin at that stage (pre-season) and seasons were starting around Australia in different states.

Waratah batter Ashley Chandrasinghe completes five hundreds in a row in Darwin Premier cricket. Picture: Glenn Campbell

“I guess I sort of had the option to go somewhere else and play a couple of games to keep the momentum going of playing games which I didn’t end up doing just because I thought I should head home.

“I was pretty happy to just continue training in Darwin and then head home when Covid eased up.

“When I was tossing up if I was going to go somewhere and play, South Australia was one of the options but obviously I didn’t go forward with that.

“I think showing Victoria a bit of faith had a little bit to do with it and not give them the wrong impression that I’m trying to move states and try my luck somewhere else.”

It is believed that multiple South Australian premier clubs were particularly showing good interest in Chandrasinghe.

He was more attracted to Victoria though who he represented in under 12, 15, 17 and 19 state teams.

Ashley Chandrasinghe celebrates winning gold in the under 12 Victorian cricket team.

Eventually the Victorian Premier Cricket 2020-21 season got underway on November 28 where Chandrasinghe started with a 23 against Kingston Hawthorn and went on to have a breakout season for Casey South Melbourne.

He finished sixth in aggregate runs with a total of 669 runs including a century and five fifties from 16 innings as a young 19-year-old.

He was one spot behind former first-class cricketer Evan Gulbis on the aggregate runs leaderboard and four spots behind James Seymour in second who was awarded with a full state contract after that season.

Chandrasinghe said people were mentioning he was a chance of receiving a rookie contract with Victoria having scored so many runs that season.

“It was the first time I heard about rookie contracts and that sort of stuff,” he said.

“I wasn’t actually quite aware of how it was set up so when people were saying you might be half a chance and that sort of stuff.

“And then obviously when I didn’t get one, it was sort of a bit upsetting I guess.

“But it was just one season and I still needed to prove myself which I understood.

“It came at the right time because so far things have worked out pretty well and maybe if I was awarded the rookie contract a season earlier it might have been too early.

“So I’m happy how it worked out in the end.”

Chandrasinghe said he quickly moved on from the setback of not receiving a contract.

“After the season I didn’t get one, I sort of made it a goal and I just tried to do as well as I can and string a few performances together and I ended up getting the reward which was quite pleasing,” he said.

If it wasn’t for his resilience and drive, it could have sent his career down another path.

Ashley Chandrasinghe receives his debut cap during the Sheffield Shield match between Tasmania and Victoria at Blundstone Arena. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

Chandrasinghe revealed that he felt the pressure during his first few moves on Blundstone Arena in his team’s warm up game called Wallyball.

“Another thing that I thought was quite interesting was the ‘Wallyball’ in the warm up,” he said.

“It is quite different because everyone's so good.

“Usually in the second XI because there are a lot of players who aren’t in the Vic squad, they aren’t very used to the Wally game so the skills aren’t as good.

“And then coming into the Shield game and into the warm ups, I remember my first day it was so stressful because I didn’t want to mess up.

“It sort of got better as the week progressed.”

Chandrasinghe said it was up there with one of his most nerve racking moments on debut.

“Definitely when the wicket fell and I came out to bat, that would have been the most nerve racking time and when I was one off like 50 balls or whatever I was, I was pretty nervous then,” he said.

“But the Wallyball was quite up there, I was quite stressed not to make a mistake, you don’t want to let the team down.

“Everyone blows up if you make a mistake so that was quite stressful as well.”

Chandrasinghe is set to play in Victoria’s next Sheffield Shield game on Thursday, November 10 against Queensland at Allan Border Field.

He will also play for Casey South Melbourne in this weekend’s opening game of the season.