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Kushal Mendis and Lakshan Sandakan: My Cricketers of The Week

It's absolutely fabulous time to be a test cricket fan right now. Four top teams competing in four different corners of the world with four pretty competitive ones. Ind and WI; Aus and SL; Pak and Eng; and NZ v Zim......test cricket is well and truly on a glorious course. Bulawayo gets a test match to host after 5 years and that's a welcome change for Zimbabwe Cricket. Zimbabwe being one of the 10 full members of ICC does need the supreme form of Cricket to survive and function and I'm glad New Zealand were willing to play them in their home conditions. But the most heartening cricket stories of this week come from the 'Pearl of Indian Ocean, i.e. Sri Lanka'. They always unearth truly extraordinary and super special cricketers when the chips are down and this time, they have managed to find two such gems: Lakshan Sandakan, a wiry, young left arm wrist spinner and Kushal Mendis, said to be a hybrid of Mahela and Arvinda De Silva. Sandakan represents the tiniest subset of player category in world cricket being a 'Chinaman' bowler (how many are there in the top flight cricket presently?) and no Australian batsman managed to pick him up in first innings of ongoing Pallakelle Test. On the other hand, Kushal Mendis didn't let me sleep yesterday afternoon for he was playing breathless cricket against the fiery Australian bowling line up. Every shot was off the text book and he has really got a batting technique that Cricketers of Sri Lanka consider a residual affair. Kumar Sangakkara found an ideal technical set up only when he was 7 years old in international cricket and Aravinda De Silva had to spend a summer at Kent to get everything right 'technically'. The whole of Sri Lanka was waiting for this beacon of hope and in a truly grand fashion, he obliged. I cannot possibly tell you when I was this happy narrating the story of an upcoming cricket superstar. Kusal and Sandakan are absolutely magnificent and I shall ask everyone of my fellow cricket lovers to take note of their presence and inevitable bright future.......#FascinatingStuff

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