Kamindu Mendis - the ambidextrous Sri Lankan spinner who’s even more impressive with the bat
Meet Kamindu Mendis, the Sri Lankan star who can bowl with both arms - but it’s what he can do with the bat that will really worry Australia.
A budding young spinner trying to master the most difficult skill in the sport, called up to the international game only to be spat back out before returning years later as a specialist batter with an average only bettered by Don Bradman.
No, it’s not Steve Smith. We’re talking about Kamindu Mendis, who looks set to be Australia’s biggest problem in Sri Lanka.
And while Smith’s first calling card was his erratic legspin; Mendis’ was an even-rarer skillset – ambidextrous fingerspin.
It’s a skill that saw Mendis shoot to fame before he had even played a game for Sri Lanka, and part of the all-round package that earned him international stripes in white ball cricket (2018) before his ability with the bat saw him make his Test debut against Australia in 2022.
He made a patient half-century in a series-levelling win, but still found himself out of Sri Lanka’s XI for their next Test – and the next two years.
Mendis would have had every right to have felt aggrieved – his half-century was part of a 140-run stand that transformed the Test and the series, and one of remarkable assuredness against a bowling attack featuring Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon.
Instead, he took the setback in his stride, gleaning every bit of wisdom he could out of a senior batting group as he joined them for the next two years as a touring player.
“I knew that the batting was packed, but what I tried to do was to do as best as I could in the chance that I had,” Mendis said last August.
“I had to exit the team after that (debut), but I don’t see that as a mistake. You have to take various decisions to balance a team, and I came into that side only because Dhananjaya (captain Dhananjaya de Silva) had Covid.
“When he returned, I had to make way. That’s fair.
“Even though I didn’t get to play, I was in the squad and travelling with the team, pretty much every tour,” he said. “Going on so many tours with experienced players on those tours also helped me play well in my first few innings.”
Those ‘first few innings’ featured twin tons in his first Test in two years last March against Bangladesh, and a brilliant 113 in his first Test in England in August.
His average sat at 92.16 at that point; which was the highest of any player not named Bradman with more than 500 Test runs. That average has slipped to 74, but he’s still second to only Bradman.
Across his 17 Test innings to date, he’s passed 50 nine times, turning five of those fifties into centuries.
Not bad at all for a man who can bowl with both arms.
More Coverage
Khawaja reveals shock plea, hits back at ‘retirement’ calls
Usman Khawaja has revealed a shock plea for the veteran to keep playing until this tour as the opener took a veiled swipe at those who had been telling him to retire over the summer.
Crash: For Ashes sake, please show something England
When England toured Australia three years ago, the Ashes produced a Test match which had two nations of the edge of their seats. Now, as ROBERT CRADDOCK writes, all we want it England to show a semblance of fight.