Kusal Perera

Kusal Perera

Personal information
Full name	Mathurage Don Kusal Janith Perera
Born	(1990-08-17) 17 August 1990 Kalubovila, Sri Lanka
Nickname	Little Sana
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Batting	Left-handed
Role	Wicket-keeper- opening Batsman
International information
National side	Sri Lanka
Test debut (cap 130)	28 August 2015 v India
ODI debut (cap 155)	13 January 2013 v Australia
Last ODI	26 July 2015 v Pakistan
ODI shirt no.	8
T20I debut (cap 48)	26 January 2013 v Australia
Last T20I	1 August 2015 v Pakistan
Domestic team information
Years	Team
	Wayamba cricket team
2013 – present	Rajasthan Royals (squad no. 8)
	Ruhuna cricket team
Career statistics
Competition ODI T20I FC LA Matches 48 20 43 111 Runs scored 1,096 544 3,123 2,980 Batting average 25.48 27.20 49.57 31.04 100s/50s 2/5 0/5 10/9 4/19 Top score 106 84 336 155 Balls bowled – - – – Wickets – - – – Bowling average – - – – 5 wickets in innings – - – – 10 wickets in match – - – – Best bowling – - – – Catches/stumpings 14/0 6/1 75/14 61/22
Source: ESPN Cricinfo

Mathurage Don Kusal Janith Perera (born 17 August 1990) or Kusal Perera, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer. He plays first class for the Wayamba cricket team, Tests, ODIs and T20 Internationals for Sri Lanka. He was a key member of 2014 ICC World Twenty20 winning team.

Educated at Kottawa Dharmapala Maha Vidyalaya, and Royal College Colombo, he has played for the Royal–Thomian annual cricket encounter. 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. He owned the joint second fastest fifty in ODI history.

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 aginast Australia. 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. 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.

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.

International Centuries

One-Day International Centuries

ODI Centuries of Kusal Perera
No.	Score	Match	Balls	4s	6s	Against	H/A	Venue	Year	Result
1	106	22	124	6	5	Bangladesh	Away	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh	2014	Won
2	116	48	109	9	4	Pakistan	Home	MRIC Stadium, Hambantota, Sri Lanka	2015	Won

International half-centuries

One Day International half-centuries

ODI half-centuries of Kusal Perera
	Runs	Match	Against	City/country	Venue	Year
[1]	56	7	Bangladesh	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium	2013
[2]	64	15	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	2013
[3]	64	24	India	Narayanganj, Bangladesh	Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium	2014
[4]	59	37	England	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R Premadasa Stadium	2014
[5]	68	45	Pakistan	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium	2015

T20I Cricket Half-Centuries

T20I half-centuries of Kusal Perera
	Runs	Match	Against	City/country	Venue	Year
[1]	64	3	Bangladesh	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium	2013
[2]	57	7	New Zealand	Kandy, Sri Lanka	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium	2013
[3]	84	9	Pakistan	Dubai, UAE	Dubai International Cricket Stadium	2013
[4]	64	10	Bangladesh	Chittagong, Bangladesh	Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium	2014
[5]	61	12	South Africa	Chittagong, Bangladesh	Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium	2014

International Awards

One Day Internationals - Man of the Match awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	Bangladesh	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka	22 February 2014	106 (124 balls: 6x4, 5x6)	Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets.
2	Pakistan	Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy	15 July 2015	68 (25 balls: 13x4, 2x6)	Sri Lanka won by 2 wickets.
3	Pakistan	MRIC Stadium, Hambantota	26 July 2015	116 (109 balls: 9x4, 4x6)	Sri Lanka won by 165 runs.

Twenty20 International Cricket – Man of the match awards

#	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	Bangladesh in Sri Lanka	2013	64 runs (44 balls: 5x4, 4x6)	won by 17 runs.
2	New Zealand in Sri Lanka	2013	57 runs (37 balls: 6x4, 2x6)	won by 8 wickets.
3	Sri Lanka in UAE	2013	84 runs (59 balls: 5x4, 4x6)	won by 24 runs.
4	Sri Lanka in Bangladesh	2014	64 runs (44 balls: 7x4, 1x6)	won by 2 runs.
5	2014 ICC World Twenty20 (RSA vs SL) in Bangladesh.	2014	61 runs (40 balls: 6x4, 3x6)	won by 5 runs.

External links

• Kusal Perera at ESPNcricinfo