Uncapped opening batsman Dilshan Munaweera and schoolboy off-spinner Akila Dananjaya were named in Sri Lanka's 15-man squad on Thursday for the Twenty20 World Cup on home soil next month.
Ajantha Mendis and fellow practitioners of unorthodox spin bowling have proved they are not in the World Twenty20 just to play cannon-fodder.
Rangana Herath claimed three wickets for 25 runs as Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by 16 runs in the first semi-final of the World Twenty20 in Colombo on Thursday.
Sri Lanka could turn to uncapped teenager Akila Dananjaya if spinner Ajantha Mendis fails to recover from injury in time for the World Twenty20 Super Eight game against New Zealand at Pallekele on Thursday.
Sri Lanka hope spinner Ajantha Mendis can be fit for the opening World Twenty20 Super Eight match with New Zealand on Thursday after he returned to the nets following a side strain.
Ajantha Mendis' figures of six for eight are the best in the history of the Twenty20 Internationals, eclipsing his own figures of 6 for 16 against Australia at Pallekele on August 8, 2011.
Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis registered the best figures in World Twenty20 with a magical-haul of six wickets for eight runs to help Sri Lanka crush Zimbabwe by 82 runs in the tournament opener.
Former India cricketers Yusuf Pathan, Naman Ojha and R Vinay Kumar, all of whom recently announced their retirements, will feature in the India Legends team in the Road Safety World Series starting in Raipur on March 5.
Several senior players, including Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga, Chamara Kapugedera and Ajantha Mendis, were left out for next month's tri-series with Bangladesh and India. Former captain Mahela Jayawardene, spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, all-rounder Angelo Mathews and fast bowler Dilhara Fernando were not available due to injury.
Top international cricketers have thrown their weight behind the ICC T20I team and player rankings, which were officially launched, on Monday, saying it will give more meaning to one-off matches and also provide the players a good chance to assess their game.
Sri Lanka dropped veteran Sanath Jayasuriya and spinner Ajantha Mendis from their 15-member squad for the Asia Cup tournament starting in Colombo from June 15.
The two champion players will clash against each other in the opening game of the 'Unacademy Road Safety World Series'on March 7
Spinner Ajantha Mendis and fast bowler Dilhara Fernando are back in Sri Lanka's Test squad for the tour of South Africa next month, the selectors announced on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka's young team are good enough to be competitive in the One-day tri-series in Bangladesh this month, coach Trevor Bayliss said on Sunday.
Sri Lanka vice-captain Mahela Jayawardene dismissed media reports that star batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan failed a dope test conducted during the ongoing World Cup.
Kaushal Silva, the wicketkeeper-batsman, is the only uncapped player in the squad, while there was no place for Ajantha Mendis, who is nursing an injury. Three Tests will be played in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah.
Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis is developing a new delivery that could emerge in the One-day series against Australia.
Spinner Ajantha Mendis produced the best figures in Twenty20 internationals on Monday to bowl Sri Lanka to an eight-run win over Australia at the Pallakele Stadium and a 2-0 series win. Mendis bemused the Australian batsman to finish with six for 16 off four overs, including a maiden.
At stumps on day four, India were struggling at 53 for three in 18 overs after being set a stiff 257 for victory, on a pitch offering assistance to the spinners.
TV footage showed gunmen with backpacks firing at the convoy as they fled from the scene, with several vehicles damaged and unexploded grenades lying around. None of the attackers were killed or captured, Lahore police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said
Five Sri Lankan cricketers plus the assistant coach were wounded when around a dozen gunmen attacked their bus as it drove under police escort on Tuesday to the Gadaffi stadium in Lahore.
Pakistan Punjab governor Salmaan Tahseer, Governor of Pakistan's Punjab province on Tuesday, said the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team's bus in Lahore was similar to the Mumbai's 26/11 attack. Four Pakistan players -- Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavithana -- were injured after armed gunmen attacked the team bus and hurled grenades as they made their way to the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore to take part in the second Test.
Check out India's double centurions in Test cricket.
Ajantha Mendis took six wickets for 67 runs as the famed Indian batting line-up struggled despite Yuvraj Singh's brisk century and Gautam Gambhir's 89 on Day 2 in the three-day warm-up match against Sri Lanka Board President's XI at the Colts Cricket Club Ground, in Colombo, on Wednesday.
Ajantha Mendis took six wickets for 67 runs as the famed Indian batting line-up struggled despite Yuvraj Singh's brisk century and Gautam Gambhir's 89 on Day 2 in the three-day warm-up match against Sri Lanka Board President's XI at the Colts Cricket Club Ground, in Colombo, on Wednesday.
Skipper Mahela Jayawardene and vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara were left out of Sri Lanka's 15-man squad on Tuesday for the Twenty20 match against India next week. Tillakaratne Dilshan will lead the side, with Chamara Kapugedera serving as his deputy.
Ajantha Mendis wrecked havoc when India toured Sri Lanka in 2008 but senior batsman Rahul Dravid is hopeful that this time around he and his colleagues are better equipped to tackle the 'mystery' spinner in the forthcoming Test series, beginning in Galle next month.
Wayamba qualified for the Champions League following their Inter-Provincial Twenty20 tournament victory over Basnahira South in what could be a big boost for Sri Lankan domestic cricket. Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene will be Wayamba's main hope with the bat.
Darren Bravo hit an impressive 63 not out for his third half-century to boost the West Indies in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in Pallekele on Wednesday.
Spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has been named in Sri Lanka's one-day international squad for their five-match series against Pakistan, starting next week, after recovering from a knee injury. Muralitharan, 37, the highest wicket-taker in ODI history, missed the three-match Test series with a tendon injury and will team up with Ajantha Mendis and recalled leg spinner Malinga Bandara in a 15-man squad that includes three spinners.
Chris Gayle became the first West Indies batsman to smash a triple-century in an away Test, in the first match against Sri Lanka, in Galle.
Sri Lanka fought off a strong challenge from Ireland at Lord's on Sunday to win their Twenty20 World Cup Super Eight match by nine runs. Ireland, the only non-Test playing nation still in the tournament, restricted the 1996 World one-day champions to 144 for nine after Sri Lanka had won the toss and elected to bat.
Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis made it to Sri Lanka's 14-member squad for the first cricket Test against India with the pace attack looking severely depleted by injuries to frontline pacers.
With 23 wickets at 19.43 runs apiece, Shane Warne has surpassed Sohail Tanvir's tally of 22 at an average of 12.09. Warne is now the leading wicket-taker in the IPL.
Elated after winning the tri-series on Wednesday night, Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said he is all the more delighted because the youngsters played a big part in the achievement.
'Mystery' spinner Ajantha Mendis went into the second Test against India with a reputation to protect, but was stripped off his cloak of enigma after 19 futile overs.
Injured Sri Lanka pacer Dhammika Prasad will miss the second Test against India starting in Kanpur on Tuesday but opener Tillekaratne Dilshan will play despite suffering a broken nose. Prasad, 26, picked up a hamstring strain on the final day of last week's high-scoring drawn first Test in Ahmedabad and will not be considered for the second contest of a three-match series.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat in the fifth one-day international against India in Colombo on Sunday. Spinner Pragyan Ojha and pacer Praveen Kumar made way for debutant Ravindra Jadeja and Laxmipathy Balaji.
Tillakeratne Dilshan and Ajantha Mendis led Sri Lanka to a 55-run win over hosts South Africa as the opening match of the Champions Trophy was decided by the Duckworth-Lewis scoring method on Tuesday.
South Africa and Sri Lanka are set to play two frontline spinners apiece on what promises to be a turning wicket at Centurion Park for their Champions Trophy opener on Tuesday. The hosts, the International Cricket Council's top-ranked one-day team, have off-spinner Johan Botha and left-armer Roelof van der Merwe while Sri Lanka will counter with off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and the unorthodox Ajantha Mendis.
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