Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Kusal Perera

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Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Kusal Perera

Officially named Mathurage Don Kusal Janith Perera and commonly known as Kusal Perera, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer and a former limited overs Captain of Sri Lanka national cricket team. He was born on 17th August 1990.

He plays all forms of the game for the Sri Lanka national cricket team, and is currently one of the permanent top-order batsmen in all formats.

He was a key member of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 winning team. In domestic cricket, he plays for the Wayamba cricket team.

1. Kusal has won the best test performance

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He smashed 153 knock outs against South Africa in the first Test at Durban in 2019. He was able to snatch the victory from the hands of South Africa by adding 78 runs for the last wicket with Vishwa Fernando in the match in the 4th innings of the Test match.

Those innings were named the second-best Test innings of the decade by Wisden in 2019. Kusal has also won the best test performance from Cricinfo for 2019.

2. Was named captain of the Sri Lanka team in 2021

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In May 2021, Kusal Perera was named captain of the Sri Lankan team. This was ahead of their One Day International (ODI) series against Bangladesh.

3. His stance switch from being right-handed to left-handed was influenced by his icon, a Sri Lankan legend player

Cricket Batsman- Image by PDPics from Pixabay

Educated at Kottawa Dharmapala Maha Vidyalaya and Royal College Colombo, he has represented the latter in the prestigious Royal–Thomian annual cricket encounter.

Even though Kusal was a right-handed batsman at the younger age of 11 to 13 years, he later switched his stance to become a left-handed batsman.

This switch was influenced by the batting stance of the Sri Lankan legend, Sanath Jayasuriya, his childhood idol and hero.

He made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut playing for Rajasthan Royals in the 2013 IPL season.

4. Perera is well known as a quick scorer

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

In March 2018, he was named as the vice-captain of Dambulla’s squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. The following month, he was also named as the captain of Dambulla’s squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament.

In August 2018, he was named as the vice-captain of Kandy’s squad in the 2018 SLC T20 League.

In November 2019, he was selected to play for the Cumilla Warriors in the 2019–20 Bangladesh Premier League.

In October 2020, he was drafted by the Kandy Tuskers for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League.

5. Made his one-day debut against Australia in 2013

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Perera was a part of a 15-man squad that toured Australia in January 2013. He made his one-day international debut against Australia in the 2nd ODI on January 13, 2013. He came to bat on number 4 and scored an unbeaten 14 from 16 balls before Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets.

Perera made his T20I debut in the first T20I against Australia in January 2013 and scored 33 from 22 balls before getting caught behind Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell.

In this match, he hit some aggressive shots and many compared him with Sanath Jayasuriya. Another amazing cricket player in Sri Lanka.

6. When he first joined the test team against India, his performance wasn’t so good but he later proved himself

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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 however not good at all when he dropped Indian skipper Virat Kohli.

He however managed to take 2 catches and 1 stumping in that innings. He showed his batting talents right in the first innings of the match, where he was the top scorer for Sri Lanka with 56 runs in the first innings.

In the second innings as well, he scored 70 runs to be the 2nd Sri Lankan batsman to score 2 successive half centuries on his Test debut after Dinesh Chandimal. Even though Sri Lnaka lost the match against India, Perera ended up proving himself.

7. Kusal also helped Sri Lanka win its 2013 match against Bangladesh

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On March 31, 2013, in theT20I match during Bangladesh tour of Sri Lanka, Kusal Perera scored his maiden T20I half century.

He scored 64 from 44 balls hitting five boundaries and four sixes. Sri Lanka won the match by 17 runs and Kusal Perera won man of the match award for his performance.

On November 21, 2013, during the New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka, Kusal Perera scored his second T20I half-century.

While chasing the target of 142 runs, Perera scored 57 runs from 37 balls hitting six boundaries and two sixes.

Finally, Sri Lanka won the match by 8 wickets and Kusal Perera won the man of the match award for his performance.

On 13 December 2013, he scored 84 runs from 59 balls against Pakistan and Sri Lanka and went on ahead to score a massive total of 211.

Sri Lanka won the match by 24 runs and Perera earned the Man of the Match for his performance.

8. In 2014 again he helped get a victory for Sri Lanka against South Africa

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On 22 March 2014 against South Africa in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 pool match, 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 affect larger to the team. However, Sri Lanka won their first T20I title by defeating India in the final.

9. Kusal became a permanent opening batsman during a match against Pakistan

Cricket batsman- Image by Yogendra Singh from Pixabay

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 parts of the ground and scored the joint second fastest ODI fifty by 17 balls.

The shots of Kusal were 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.

Sri Lanka scored 92 in 9 overs in the match until Kusal departed 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 the second-highest run chase on Sri Lankan soil.

10. Was included in the ICC Champions Trophy

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Kusal was included in the original squad for 2017 ICC Champions Trophy and played the first two pool games as well.

During the match against India however, Kusal suffered a hamstring injury and he retired hurt after scoring 47 runs.