Sri Lanka won five World Test Championship Tests in 2024, putting them in contention for making the World Test Championship final in 2025, as recently as December. Three of those victories came away from home, which is what made that run especially impressive.
Since his big runs have dried up, Sri Lanka’s totals have become substantially skinnier. There is the 229 for 9 in the ongoing Test, but of their previous six totals, there is only one above 300. Right through that time, Kamindu has not crossed fifty in Tests, where in the five Test victories last year, he’d hit four hundreds and two fifties, averaging 123.33.
Sri Lanka’s batting coach Thilina Kandamby thinks that Kamindu’s 2024 excellence may have covered up failures elsewhere in the batting order.
“The top of the order was not firing enough for the last four or five innings. When the ball is hard, there are more opportunities for the bowlers, especially in South Africa [where Sri Lanka last played Tests, and lost 2-0]. Today, unfortunately, the middle order couldn’t get runs.
“But still, the middle order are the ones who have been scoring runs for us right throughout the last year. Kamindu and Dhananjaya de Silva have been fantastic. But unfortunately they couldn’t get runs as well.”
Kandamby pointed to instances in 2024, when it had been Kamindu’s runs that rescued Sri Lanka.
“When we were in Bangladesh about a year ago, we were 57 for 5, and then the twin hundreds from Kamindu and DDS [de Silva] happened. At that time the middle order was scoring consistently, but in this series so far unfortunately it didn’t happen.” De Silva had also been excellent through parts of 2024, but had averaged a shade less than 50 in their wins that year. Kamindu had been the star, but has now fallen for 15, 32, and 13 against Australia.
His dip in output has meant that Sri Lanka have frequently faced difficult match situations. In the ongoing game, their 229 for 9 might prove a decent total, given the extremely spin-friendly nature of the pitch. But Kandamby wishes more of his batters would have fired.
“Targeting a total above 350 would have been ideal, but we’re already nine down,” Kandamby said. “But Kusal Mendis is there, and he has all the shots. I hope he’ll score a few more runs and get us to 275 ideally.”
