Thisara Perera

Thisara Perera Biography

Narangoda Liyanaarachchilage Thisara Chirantha Perera, popularly known as Thisara Perera is a Sri Lankan professional cricketer who was born on 3 April 1989 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Perera is an all-rounder who bats left-handed and bowls right-arm medium pace. He is known for his destructive batting in the death overs and often performs the role of match finisher for his team.

Background

Perera first began playing competitive cricket for St. Anthony's College located in Wattala and then moved to the reputable St. Joseph's College, Colombo for betterment of his cricketing-career as the college had already produced a number of international players for Sri Lanka.

In 2007, he was acquired in the U-19 team and performed well enough to make a place in the squad for U-19 World Cup. He has 41 wickets in his name in 18 U-19 ODIs.

In November 2008, he started playing first-class cricket for Colts Cricket Club.

Debut

In 2009, Sri Lanka were on the tour of India and their key player, Angelo Mathews got injured.

Sri Lankan selectors found no better replacement than Thisara Perera and he also proved them sound, hitting 31 runs in just 14 balls.

Playing his 3rd ODI, he took 2 wickets at an impressive economy and also scored 36 runs off 15 balls.

With the help of his all-round performance, Sri Lanka had succeeded in beating India in the tri-nation tournament.

Rise to Glory

Although Perera had been dropped from the test side occasionally but he remained key player for Sri Lanka in shorter formats.

During Sri Lanka's tour of South Africa in 2011-12, he scored unbeaten 69 runs off 44 balls and helped his team to win 4th game of the ODI series. Later, playing against Pakistan, he took 6 wickets in an ODI and achieved his career best figure. He had also claimed a hat-trick in the same series.

In 2014 ICC World Cup, Perera was decent throughout the tournament. In the final against India, he bricked an unbeaten partnership with Sangakkara and helped his team to lift the title.

In 2017, he was added in the squad of World XI to play a T20 series against Pakistan. In the 2nd game, he scored 47 runs off 19 balls to snatch the victory away from Pakistan.

Club Career

Perera has played for a number of teams in the IPL. In 2010, he was first bought by Chennai Super Kings and in 2011, he was acquired by Kochi Tuskers Kerala.

He also played for Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kings XI Punjab and Rising Pune Supergiants in the different IPL seasons.

He has scored 422 runs at a strike rate of 137.46 in 37 IPL fixtures and also got 31 wickets in his pocket.

He had started his Big Bash League for Brisbane Heat but now represents Melbourne Renegades.

Captaincy

In October 2017, while Sri Lanka’s tour of Pakistan, Upul Tharanga Pulled his name back for security reasons. As a result, Perera named as the captain for 3 match T20I series. However, Sri Lanka and its new captain lost the series by 3-0.

On 29 November 2017, Perera replaced Upul Tharanga as a captain for India tour. In the first ODI of the series they bundled India out on 112 runs and ended their 12-match losing streak but eventually, they lost the series by 1-2. Later, they were whitewashed by India in the T20 series.

Perera’s Record in Numbers

Perera is one of the few players who have hat-trick in both ODIs and T20s. Playing 133 ODIs till date, he scored 1,586 runs at 18.23 and claimed 149 wickets. In T20s, he has got 794 runs and 48 wickets in 66 games.

Perera has also played 6 Tests and has 203 runs as well as 11 wickets in his name.