Bhanuka, perhaps the truly struggling Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka
Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 29, was thought by many cricket pundits, of being unfairly treated by the national selectors time to time, as he was either underestimated or undermined at his prime as a top order batsman. For the record, he has so far played five One Day Internationals and eight Twenty20 Internationals as he earned the trust of the selectors very late.
Yet, he justified his late inclusion with a fine knock of 77 against Pakistan in T20s where he made his international debut in October 2019, with a fine 32 off 22 deliveries. However, after eight games he has raked up 140 runs to average 23.33 with a solitary half century in T20s.
In ODIs, his average reads as 17.80 with a total of 89 runs in five games, after debuting on July 18 this year against India. True, Rajapaksa is a latecomer for international cricket, for faults that are purely not of his.
Yet, his performances and stats in List A and T20s were facts selectors could simply overlook. And he earned a national call, to man up Sri Lanka’s top-order, a slot that could cement any batsman an international career to look forward to. He is batting at the all important No.3 position, one that was previously occupied by players in the caliber of Asanka Gurusinha and Kumar Sangakkara.
His current form has been horrendous to say the least as he has collected three ducks in his last three outings. In two ODIs against the South Africans he has two back-to-back ducks and the omen followed with another golden duck in the first T20I on Friday. Rajapaksa has had many challenges in recent times in connection with fitness, skin-fold and his conduct at a video interview which cost him some hard-earned cash and nearly his career
Lately, it looks like another cloud is hovering over the wonderful world of Rajapaksa, for merely being a convenient duck hunter. With very little time in hand for the all important T20 Qualifiers, followed by the T20 World Cup, perhaps it’s high time that Rajapaksa start walking his talk. Sri Lanka had the same dilemma after a vacuum was created with the exit of Asanka Gurusinha, until Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene ideally filled in the blank. After Jayawardene’s departure Sri Lanka tried many youngsters who had come and gone without much hope.
Finally walked in Rajapaksa. He was destined to be the ideal No.3 batsman for Sri Lanka in both short forms of the game. If unanswered with a perfect fix, perhaps national cricket selectors will have to start their hunt all over again for a perfect One Down match.