Dhananjaya de Silva

Dhananjaya de Silva Biography

Born on 6 September 1991 in Hambantota, Dhananjaya de Silva is a Sri Lankan batting all-rounder.

The technically sound right-handed batsman also played for Ruhuna Royals, Kandurata Maroons and Sri Lanka Board Presidents XI.

His dedication as a player was recognised even in his international debut year as he earned the title of SLC test player of the year 2016.

Background

Teenage scarred with hardships and perseverance, Dhananjaya de Silva saw much at an early age in his life.

It was difficult for him to make ends meet when his village was hit by horrific Tsunami in 2005, but by his tenacity he came out with flying colours by focussing on his schooling and cricket at the same time. Silva rose up the ranks and became the captain of Richmond first XI cricket team in the 2010/2011 season.

In Super T20 Provincial Tournament, he hit 234 runs at a strike rate of 133, in six innings. Months later, he was the star of Tamil Union's first victorious first-class campaign in 55 years, amassing 868 runs at 54.20 which featured a crucial fourth-innings 121 in the match that clinched his team the title. He also ended up as his side's top wicket taker by his off-spin.

If one says, he is equally talented in batting as well as bowling, his stats would validate this for him.

Debut

The Artistic batsman from the southern reaches of the island, had an impressive domestic career of scoring 4218 runs and claiming 68 wickets in 64 matches.

These majestic numbers marked him out for more intensive national duty and Dhananjaya de Silva briefly caught the national selectors' eye in 2015 for the T20I series against Pakistan. ODI and Test debuts came the following year against Australia and Ireland respectively and he kicked his international career off in a very promising way.

In his first ever Test series, which was against Australia at home, he was the highest run-getter against an attack that comprised Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

A stark highlight in it was his 211-run partnership with Dinesh Chandimal in the third Test, rescuing his side from dire straits en route his maiden Test ton.

Rise to Glory

After the successful Debut series, Silva yet again brought laurels for his team in Zimbabwe tour in 2016. He scored a fifty in the first test and a tremendous century in the second.

He came back to the playing squad against India in 2017 with a thump, he updated his century tally by one. Due to the extensive pollution and haziness in Delhi, it was an herculean task to take guard the team from from front and eventually block the inevitable victory of India, but Silva dealt professionally and his unbeaten 119 became the highest fourth innings score by any visiting batsman in India.

Low Points

Due to his poor performance in the South Africa series, he was shifted from being an opener to the middle order and eventually dropped from the team for ICC Champions Trophy 2017.

During the tournament, Silva was called to fill in the shoes of Kusal Perera, who underwent an injury, but again he failed to capitalize his worthiness in the squad and removed from the squad after the Champions Trophy.

Promising Future

In the Sri Lanka’s rebuilding phase with most senior heads out, new find Dhananjaya De Silva underlined a batting flair to endure for the future of Sri Lanka cricket.

Till now he had played 11 tests, 17 ODIs and 7 T20I scoring 846, 335, 167 runs respectively and thrashing a total of 11 international wickets.

Experts believe, if this lanky right-handed batsman does justice to his capabilities, he will soon be among the likes of former veteran Sri Lankan players, Atapattu and Dilshan.