Isuru Udana

A career that stopped just as quickly as it started, and then stop-started a few more times finally seems to have stabilized a decade later in a whole new role. Isuru Udana, a Sri Lankan under-19s product, rose through the ranks dramatically, when in 2009 he was drafted straight into the national side for the World T20 on the back of some promising domestic performances. He started off his First Class and List A career for Sri Lanka A on a tour to South Africa in 2008, subsequently getting picked for Tamil Union. Touted to be the next Chaminda Vaas, young Udana, with his well-camouflaged and distinctly nippy left-arm slower cutters, starred in Wayamaba's title triumph in Inter-Provincial Twenty20 tournament in 2009 with a four-fer and a Man of the Match award as well in the finals.

His international tryst wasn't as seamless though, getting dropped soon after the World T20 in England, owing to some poor performances. A couple of comebacks followed over the next decade - in 2012 and 2016 - but alas, both saw him getting brutally smashed around the park. However, he continued churning out records in T20 leagues - getting a two-ball hat-trick in the 2010 Champions League while playing for Wayamba, by getting Matthew Sinclair stumped off a wide ball.

Things picked up in 2018, with Udana now having added the additional skill of lower-order-hitting to his armoury and doubling up as a useful all-rounder. He returned to national reckoning with impressive performances in the Super Provincial One Day tournament - finishing as Kandy's leading wicket-taker - and in the Afghanistan Premier League - finishing as the overall leading wicket-taker.

On the verge of the 2019 World Cup, as Sri Lanka tried out all possible bowling options - Udana being one of them - it was his batting that stood out. Against South Africa, he first put on a 58-run stand for the tenth wicket with Kasun Rajitha in an ODI and then followed it up in the T20I series that followed with a 84-run knock from number eight, the highest ever in world cricket from that position.

Although he made it to the fifteen for the World Cup, he didn't quite make an impact in what was a disappointing campaign for Sri Lanka. He, however, played a key role later in the year in whitewashing Pakistan at home in a three-match T20I series (the number one side in the world at that point), as a part of a weakened Lankan side thanks to most of the senior pros refusing to tour owing to security fears. 

It is his inconsistency in performances that hasn't yet allowed him to become a certain starter in the eleven, even though he's in and around the white-ball squads. With Sri Lanka going through a rebuilding phase, he could be their key to sorting out their seam-bowling all-rounder troubles. 

Written by - Vineet Anantharaman