Tillakaratne Dilshan

Tillakaratne Dilshan
Personal information
Full name
Tillakaratne Mudiyanselage Dilshan
Born
14 October 1976 (1976-10-14) (age 33)Kalutara, Sri Lanka
Batting style
Right-handed
Bowling style
Right arm off spin
Role
Batsman
International information
National side
Sri Lanka
Test debut (cap 80)
18 November 1999 v Zimbabwe
Last Test
26 August 2009 v New Zealand
ODI debut (cap 102)
11 December 1999 v Zimbabwe
Last ODI
27 September 2009 v New Zealand
ODI shirt no.
18
Domestic team information
Years 2000 – present
Team Bloomfield C&AC
1998 – 2000
Sebastianites C&AC

Tillakaratne Mudiyanselage Dilshan (born October 14, 1976 in Kalutara, Sri Lanka) is a Sri Lankan cricketer and member of the Sri Lankan national cricket team since November 1999. Known as Tuwan Mohammad Dilshan prior to his conversion from Islam to Buddhism, an aggressive right-hand batsman, he is also a capable spin bowler and his off breaks are mostly used in the one-day arena. T.M. Dilshan won the award of Twenty20 International Performance of the Year in ICC awards 2009 of his breezy 96 off 57 balls against West Indies in the semi-final of the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 in England.

Personal life
Born to a Malay family, Dilshan converted from Islam to Buddhism at an early age. He has a five year old son from his first marriage. He is now married to Sri Lankan teledrama actress Manjula Thilini. The marriage was celebrated in India during IPL 2008 series, following Indian rituals.


Career
Dilshan made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in 1999. He scored his maiden Test hundred in the series with a 163. Dilshan also made his One day international debut against Zimbabwe before spending the next 15 months in and out of the side. Even when he played he never knew his place in the side as he was constantly being pushed up and down the order.
His revival as an international cricketer came in 2003. In four consecutive Test innings he scored 63, 100, 83 and 104. The latter came against the world champion Australian side at Galle. In September 2005 Dilshan scored his most recent Test century, an innings of 168 off just 179 balls against Bangladesh.
In first final of the 2005-06 VB Series, Dilshan's fielding made headlines when he made four run outs.
In November 2007, Dilshan scored 188 for Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club against Colts Cricket Club in a 50 over game. The innings is the joint 14th highest score made in any List A cricket match (alongside Gary Kirsten's 188 in 1996), and came from just 135 balls, at a strike rate of 139.25. He hit 14 fours and 12 sixes before being bowled by fellow Sri Lankan international Nuwan Kulasekara. The scorecard for the game can be found here
In 2009 T20 world cup series, Dilshan became player of the series with 317 runs in seven matches which includes three half centuries. He maintained a 52.83 batting average throughout the series, which was the fourth best among all the cricketers, behind AJ Matthews (Sri Lanka) with 75, J Kallis (South Africa) with 59.5 and Younis Khan (Pakistan) with 57.33.
His scoop, played straight over the wicket keeper's head, was displayed for the first time during this tournament and came to be known as the Dilscoop in his honour.

Sri Lanka tour of India

Kandamby, Kaushal Silva get Test call-ups
Series/Tournaments: Sri Lanka tour of India
Teams: Sri Lanka
Two uncapped players, left-hand middle-order batsman Thilina Kandamby and wicketkeeper-batsman Kaushal Silva, have been named in Sri Lanka's Test squad for the tour of India starting next month. Another major change in the 16-man line-up for the three-Test series was a recall for left-arm fast bowler Chanaka Welegedera after a two-year absence from the senior side. The notable absentees are opener Malinda Warnapura and middle-order batsman Chamara Kapugedera.
Kandamby has made it to the Test squad on the strength of his exceptional one-day form. Since his recall to the one-day side last year, Kandamby has been one of Sri Lanka's consistent performers scoring 618 runs from 17 ODIs at an average of 44.14 including five half-centuries.
Silva is highly rated by captain Kumar Sangakkara, who once said that it was the presence of the world's best Test wicketkeeper in the side, Prasanna Jayawardene, that was keeping Silva on the sidelines. A right-hand middle order batsman Silva has been a prolific scorer for Sinhalese Sports Club in the domestic circuit and captained Sri Lanka A against Pakistan A early this year.
Welegedera, 28, played his only Test against England at Galle in 2007 where he took four wickets for 76 and was hailed as the likely successor to Sri Lanka's most successful fast bowler, Chaminda Vaas. However, Welegedera failed to live up to the high expectations and faded out of contention until last season when he came back strongly with some inspiring bowling performances for Wayamba in the provincial tournament to stake a claim for a place in the Test side.
Welagedera also gets a nod in for the two Twenty20s along with hard-hitting Chintaka Jayasinghe and Kaushalya Weeraratne and allrounder Muthumudalige Pushpakumara. For the five one-day internationals, fast bowler Dilhara Fernando has been recalled.

Tests:
Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Tharanga Paranavitana, Thilan Samaraweera, Angelo Mathews, Thilina Kandamby, Prasanna Jayawardene (wk), Kaushal Silva, Chanaka Welegedara, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Dammika Prasad, Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis.

Twenty20s:
Kumar Sangakkara (capt/wk), Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Kapugedara, Angelo Mathews, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Kaushal Weeraratne, Ajantha Mendis, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara, Chanaka Welegedara, Thilan Thushara, Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekera.

ODIs:
Kumar Sangakkara (capt/wk), Muttiah Muralitharan, Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Kapugedara, Tilina Kandamby, Upul Tharanga, Angelo Mathews, Thilan Samaraweera, Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Ajantha Mendis.

Jayasuriya's future under scrutiny

Sri Lanka in India 2009-10

Series/Tournaments: Sri Lanka tour of India
Teams: Sri Lanka
Sanath Jayasuriya's cricketing future has been put in the balance with Sri Lanka's selectors saying today that his days as an opener are effectively over and that following the upcoming tour of India he will be picked on performance alone. Jayasuriya, 40, has been picked in the one-day squad as an allrounder who can bat down the order and bowl left-arm spin.
"What we expect from Sanath is that he should win one in three games for Sri Lanka, which he was doing in the past," Ashantha de Mel, Sri Lanka's chairman of selectors, said in Colombo. "But now that has reduced and we are a little concerned about it. In the Champions Trophy in South Africa his performance was below par .That's the reason why we have gone in with the option of playing him as an allrounder."
Jayasuriya scored freely during the World Twenty20 in England this summer, where Sri Lanka finished runners-up, and ended as their joint second-highest run-getter with 177 at 25.28. However, he underperformed in the limited-overs fixtures against New Zealand and India at home and in the Champions Trophy.
Sri Lanka's selectors have Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan in mind as the opening pair for the future and Jayasuriya's selection will depend on the requirements of the team depending on where they will play. "We have spoken to Sanath on the role he has to play," de Mel said. "He has the option to play as an allrounder. We have considered him for this tour only, after that his selection will depend on his performance. He has to perform to hold his place in the team for the World Cup."
de Mel said the selectors did not have a settled position for Jayasuriya, who was impressive as an allrounder during Sri Lanka's victorious World Cup campaign in 1996, and that his flexibility worked in his favour. "Especially in the batting power play having a spinning allrounder like Sanath is useful in the subcontinent because he can hit the ball. He might bat in the middle or in the top order depending on the situation," he said. "Also, the World Cup will be held in the subcontinent where his left-arm spin can become useful. He can perform that role because in South Africa in the game against New Zealand when they scored 300 runs he was the one who bowled ten overs for three wickets and 30 runs. He has done well in the subcontinent especially with his bowling."
Jayasuriya is the second batsman after India's Sachin Tendulkar to pass 13,000 runs in ODIs and also holds the record for being the oldest batsman to score a one-day century, at 39 years and 212 days against India in Colombo. Of the 13,377 runs he has scored in 441 ODIs, 2841 have come in 86 ODIs against India including seven hundreds at a strike-rate of 97.
Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara felt the main factor in Sri Lanka's poor ODI performances over the past two years has been an inconsistent batting line up. "The biggest let-down we had is our batting. We suffered because we had lots of batting position changes up and down the order," he said. "For the batting to improve you must give the players the confidence. They must know what role they are supposed to play. Role identification has been a big problem. Except for the openers no one knew what their role was in the side.
"We have never clicked in all departments those are things the team ignored for a while. The players have now started to realise that they take a lot of pride not just representing the country but to be up to the task that is required of them by the team."
Fielding was one of the key areas where Sri Lanka suffered during the Champions Trophy and to address the poor standards and improve them Sri Lanka Cricket acquired the services of Gavin Fingleson, a former Olympic baseball player.
"He didn't come and change but showed us how do things right. He showed us little points that will make us better and quick fielders, at the same time we also realized to be quicker on the field you've got to be fitter as a side," Sangakkara said. "We started doing a lot of work on fitness running. Gavin showed us a lot of drills and how you can gain that extra second advantage when going for a catch or trying to stop the ball. At the same time the most important point was to make sure at practice you do everything as perfectly, those are the habits we have to build on."