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Upul Chandana

Upul Chandana

The competition has been formidable and this has meant that he has taken a long time to establish his place in the Sri Lankan side. But now it can be said that Upul Chandana is now not only an integral member of the team but also bids fair to make major contributions with the bat and ball in future.

The leg spinner was a member of the World Cup winning squad in 1996 but he was chiefly among the reserves. With the side having a well settled look, Chandana hardly got a look in. For long after that he was in and out of the one day squad but did not get a chance to play in a Test. Finally he made his Test debut in the Asian Test Championship final against Pakistan at Dhaka in March 1999 after playing in 47 one day internationals.

It had been a long wait. But Chandana made his Test debut a truly memorable one. It was not memorable for his team which lost by an innings and plenty. But for the leg spinner it was a dream come true in more ways than one. Sri Lanka were up against it when they were dismissed on a true batting surface for 231 on the first day. And over the next two days the Pakistan batsmen made the most of the amiable conditions by running up a reply of 594. But there was one bowler against whom they could not take liberties and that was Chandana. With his mixture of leg spinners, googlies and top spinners, he confused even the well settled or the experienced batsmen. It was Chandana who broke the huge 366-run third wicket stand between Ijaz and Inzamam when he had the former stumped for his first Test wicket. A little later, he had Yousuf Youhana caught and then forced Shahid Afridi to give him a return catch. Shortly afterwards Wasim Akram mishit him to give a catch. He finally brought the innings to a swift end by dismissing the last two batsmen Arshad Khan and Shoaib Akhtar. Chandana finished with six for 179 off 47.5 overs. He also gave early indication of his all round capabilities by scoring 28 and putting on 40 runs for the eighth wicket with Tillekeratne in the second innings.

Chandana has played one more Test this season, against Australia at Kandy. So far though his chief exploits for Sri Lanka have been in limited overs cricket. He made his debut in the 1993-94 season against Australia in the Australasia Cup at Sharjah. He has taken 60 wickets in 61 matches with four wickets in an innings twice. His best is 4 for 31 against Zimbabwe last year. He has also got one half century. It is a modest record thus far but somehow in Chandana's case, one feels that his best is yet to come.