Highly acclaimed slow left-arm spinner of Sri Lanka Malinda Pushpkumara recently confirmed his name in record books, when he achieved a astonishing feet of taking 500 first class wickets in his first class career.
A proud product of Lumbini College, Malinda achieved the glory during a SLC premier league tournament Tier A match. he dismissed former Sri Lanka under 19 players, dilan jayalath and charith aslanka in successive balls to reach the milestone.
Malinda made his first class debut in 2006. He also represented in the icc youth World Cup in 2006, interestingly, under the captaincy of current Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathew’s.
Right from the beginning, he has been a steller performer at domestic level. Whenever he got a opportunity to shine, he grabbed it with both hands. He won the best bowler award in three successive years-old in 2012, 13 and 2014.
This kind of consistency reflects in his statistics as well. In his domestic career so far, in 93 first class matches, he took 508 wickets, with 39 five wicket hauls and 16 ten wicket hauls. You can see these kind of unbelievable stats only in the profile of some of the legends of the game, like Murlidharan, Anil Kumble.
Though, he is yet to get a national call. Yes, after murli era, Sri Lanka blessed with another great Rangana Heath. Yes, Dilruwan Perera is unduobtly the best partner of Rangana in home conditions. And indeed, Sri Lanka will have to give more chances to youngsters like Lakshan Sandkan, Jeffery vendersay.
But, Malinda also deserves a place, more than anyone else, in the national test team. After all, you can’t simply ignore a champion like him, who has 500 FC wickets under his belt !
