Hot Searches: ICC Champions Trophy 09 | Floyd Reifer | More...

Series

	Series


The Ashes
Sri Lanka v Pakistan
West Indies v Bangladesh
County Cricket
ICC Intercontinental Cup
More current and future series

Countries

	Countries

Live Scores

	Live Scores

Fixtures

	Fixtures

Fixtures Home

Live Coverage

Current and Future Tours

Results

	Results

Most viewed players

Sri Lanka

Tharanga Paranavitana

Mahela Jayawardene

Player index by type

Sri Lanka

Test caps

One-Day International caps

Twenty20 International caps

Player index by letter

Sri Lanka

- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z

Ajantha Mendis

Sri Lanka

Full name Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslo Mendis

Born March 11, 1985, Moratuwa

Current age 24 years 120 days

Major teams Sri Lanka, Kolkata Knight Riders, Sri Lanka Army, Wayamba

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak, Legbreak

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	50	4s	6s	Ct
Tests	7	7	1	31	17	5.16	48	64.58	0	4	0	1
ODIs	28	13	7	66	15*	11.00	80	82.50	0	6	0	4
T20Is	10	1	1	4	4*	-	1	400.00	0	1	0	1
First-class	28	38	1	429	37	11.59	708	60.59	0	42	3	10
List A	47	28	10	393	71*	21.83	423	92.90	2	36	7	8
Twenty20	27	9	4	20	9	4.00	27	74.07	0	3	0	8

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	7	12	1849	900	36	6/117	10/209	25.00	2.92	51.3	4	2	1
ODIs	28	27	1279	841	64	6/13	6/13	13.14	3.94	19.9	3	3	0
T20Is	10	10	228	198	23	4/15	4/15	8.60	5.21	9.9	2	0	0
First-class	28	50	5803	2680	157	7/37	10/74	17.07	2.77	36.9	16	9	2
List A	47	44	2073	1265	101	6/13	6/13	12.52	3.66	20.5	5	3	0
Twenty20	27	27	586	572	41	4/15	4/15	13.95	5.85	14.2	2	0	0

Career statistics

Test debut	Sri Lanka v India at Colombo (SSC), Jul 23-26, 2008 scorecard
Last Test	Sri Lanka v Pakistan at Galle, Jul 4-7, 2009 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut	West Indies v Sri Lanka at Port of Spain, Apr 10, 2008 scorecard
Last ODI	Sri Lanka v India at Colombo (RPS), Feb 8, 2009 scorecard
ODI statistics
T20I debut	Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe at King City (NW), Oct 10, 2008 scorecard
Last T20I	Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Lord's, Jun 21, 2009 scorecard
T20I statistics
First-class debut	Lankan Cricket Club v Sri Lanka Army at Welisara, Nov 17-19, 2006 scorecard
Last First-class	Sri Lanka v Pakistan at Galle, Jul 4-7, 2009 scorecard
List A debut	Sri Lanka Army v Lankan Cricket Club at Colombo (RPS), Nov 8, 2006 scorecard
Last List A	Sri Lanka v India at Colombo (RPS), Feb 8, 2009 scorecard
Twenty20 debut	Sri Lanka Army v Ragama Cricket Club at Colombo (CCC), Feb 28, 2007 scorecard
Last Twenty20	Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Lord's, Jun 21, 2009 scorecard

Profile

Although classified as a right-arm, slow-medium bowler, Ajantha Mendis is a spinner who bowls a mixture of googlies, offbreaks, top-spinners, flippers and legbreaks. Batsmen have been confounded by the variety of deliveries he has up his sleeve and are at a loss to figure out what his stock delivery is. Mendis was a prolific wicket-taker for Sri Lanka Army in the 2007-08 season and had taken 46 wickets at an average of 10.56 and strike-rate of 31 from six matches. His performances did not go unnoticed for Mendis was called up to the Sri Lanka squad for the tour of West Indies in April 2008. After impressing on debut in the Caribbean, Mendis only grew in stature - in particular, because of his 'carrom ball', which he releases with an unusual snap of his fingers. In a short span Mendis has flummoxed some international batsmen who've played spin pretty well in their careers. Just ask the Indians, who were clueless against him in the Asia Cup final, where Mendis netted 6 for 13 in his eighth one-day international. His 17 wickets in the tournament duly earned him the Man-of-the-Series award and soon after earned a call-up to the Test squad to face India at home. What a series it was: the best returns for a bowler in a three match-debut series, beating Alec Bedser's record by two. Mendis started by becoming the first Sri Lankan to take eight wickets on Test debut, and finished with 26 wickets, bamboozling India with unpredictability, killer efficiency and numbing accuracy, to be named Man of the Series.
Cricinfo Staff August 2008

Notes

ICC Emerging Player of the Year 2008