National discard Kaushal showing his class in Australia
Sri Lanka’s Test discard Kaushal Silva is showing his class for Greenvale Kangaroos in the Victorian Premier Cricket League in Australia as a cricketer and a coach.
An elegant stroke-maker, Silva always plays the sheet anchor role as an opener giving his fellow opener to take the shine off the new ball. A pint-sized right handed opening batsman, he made his national debut in 2011 against Pakistan in Dubai. He last played in a Test match in 2018 against England in Pallekelle.
A batsman who prefers to play mostly on his front foot making room to send the ball through the off side field with crisp cover drives, Silva accumulated a total of 2,099 Test runs at an average of 28.32. He played in 39 Tests batting 74 innings with a highest score of 139.
A prominent scorer in the domestic tournaments, Silva carried on where he left in Sri Lanka and made a name in the Kangaroo island as a batsman of highest calibre. He is not only a cricketer, for his invaluable services to Greenvale Kangaroos the club has no hesitation in appointing him as the head coach as Silva had shown interest to get involved in coaching.
He replaces Trent Johnston who stepped down from the role after being appointed Hong Kong’s head coach.
Playing in the Victorian Premier League, Silva notched two centuries in four outings. His first century was against Kingston Hawthorn in a third round match. A knock of 133 well compiled runs coming off 123 deliveries with a strike rate of 108.13. His knock made way for Greenvale Kangaroos to register a three-wicket win.
His second century so far was scored against Ringwood CC in round seven, a match winning 128 off 242 deliveries with a strike rate of 52.89. He carried his side to victory when wickets fell around him. The former Sri Lankan international was at his best as he helped the Kangaroos to chase down Ringwood’s total of 252 for the loss of nine wickets. He batted throughout the innings, making a masterly unbeaten 128 as the Kangaroos finished on 254 for eight wickets.
Silva speaking to the Sunday Times from Australia said: “After scoring over 14,000 runs in first class cricket in Sri Lanka, my purpose of visiting this country is to get use to different playing conditions. As most of the sub continent batters tend to fail playing on Australian fast wickets, my intention is to get used to it and be more successful in Australian conditions.”
Kaushal Silva so far has made a total number of 474 runs, averaging 65.29 in League, One Dayers and T20 outings for the Geenvale Kangaroos in the ongoing season.
He also said that he enjoys his cricket in Australia as the standard is very high and competitive. “With players in the calibre of Glen Maxwell, Peter Handscombe and James Pattinson along with international cricketers from other countries makes it really tough to compete. I hope the experience I get will make my career as a cricketer more complete,” he added