Asia Cup 2023: Dunith Wellalage celebrates after dismissing an Indian batter.© AFP
Sri Lanka’s young left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage took the Asia Cup by storm when he secured his maiden 5-wicket haul, single-handedly dismantling a formidable Indian batting lineup and bagging the wicket of top batters like Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya. With his exceptional spin magic, Wellalage became the youngest bowler to bag a five-wicket haul in the ODI format at the age of 20 years 246 days.
Sri Lanka legend Lasith Malinga heaped praise on Dunith Wellalage after the young all-rounder had India’s high-profile top-order in a spin with a superb bowling performance at the Asia Cup.
“It is fair to say that SL played with 12 players today. That is how good Dunith was,” Malinga wrote as quoted by ICC.
“He has got a brilliant head on his young shoulders to go with his all-round skill set.”
“I believe he is on his way to becoming the most important player for SL in ODIs for the next decade,” he concluded.
The left-armer looks set to play a major role in Sri Lanka’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup campaign that commences in India next month.
Wellalage first showed his class by finishing as the leading wicket-taker at last year’s ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup with 17 scalps at an average of 13.58.
The youngster also delivered solid performances with the bat. In six matches, he scored 264 runs at an average of 44.00 and a strike rate of 70. He scored a century and a half-century, with the best score of 113. He was SL’s leading run-scorer in the tournament and overall seventh.
The 20-year-old built on that promise by collecting the big wickets of Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Hardik Pandya during his breakout spell at the Asia Cup.
Meanwhli, Sri Lanka coach Chris Silverwood was disappointed by his team’s meek outing in the Asia Cup final but said it was a timely wake up call for his side ahead of the ODI World Cup next month.
Sri Lanka were bowled out for 50 after India pacer Mohammed Siraj grabbed six for 21, and the visitors romped to a 10-wicket win here on Sunday.
“We played very good cricket to get to the final. I think we have to regroup and put some confidence into the players.
“You know sometimes a bit of a kick to the rear end is not the worst thing before going into a big tournament,” said Silverwood during the post-match press meet.
Silverwood said the Lankan team needed to ask tough questions and try to move on from this defeat.
“It was a super bowling performance by India. We did not help ourselves either, and were disappointed with the way we finished. We have a big World Cup tournament coming, and we need to ask a few questions in the dressing room and move forward from this,” he said.
With ANI inputs
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