Shaminda Eranga

Much like fellow quicks, Nuwan Pradeep and Lasith Malinga, Eranga was unearthed from a pace bowling scout in the Emerald Isle and was immediately inducted into the Sri Lankan cricket academy. He fine tuned his skills and learnt the principles of swing and seam under the guidance of former Sri Lankan bowler, Champaka Ramanayake. Eranga announced his arrival into the international cauldron with a bang, becoming the only bowler to accomplish a grand slam of sorts by prising out a wicket in his first over across all formats of the game. However, the joy was short-lived with a recurrence of back injuries landing him on the surgeon's table.

Ever the fighter, Eranga bounced back to nail down a permanent spot in the side and with it inject penetration to what appeared to be blunt Sri Lankan pace unit.

He holds the ability to move the ball off the seam both ways and mixes up his pace intelligently. Any conjecture regarding Eranga's fitness was flushed to the drain when he sent down as many as 30 high-intensity overs against Pakistan amidst taxing conditions in Abu Dhabi at the onset of 2014.

He provided more proof of his copious skills when he led the Sri Lankan bowling attack with aplomb in the absence of Rangana Herath in Bangladesh.

By Deivarayan Muthu