Mahela Jayawardene : The rock of the island nation team

As Mahela Jayawardene announced his retirement from Test cricket and became the new member of the legends club who are hanging their boots,  a sense of disruption has engulfed Sri Lankan cricket as he has been the constant over a decade and a half, shaping the future of Sri Lankan cricket over the course of time. What makes this fact even more glaring is that as Jayawardene prepares to play his last series against Pakistan, he is still the go to man in the Sri Lankan middle order.

Jayawardene along with Kumar Sangakkara have carried the team on their shoulders for over a decade. Where Sangakkara was an epitome of consistency and focus, Jayawardene on the other hand had a knack of rising to the occasion in big ticket matches, who can forget that epic innings of 103 runs off just 88 balls in the 2011 world cup final against India, albeit in a losing cause.

But Jayawardene has had his fair share of struggles as well. Infact although he was considered as a prodigy when he entered the international arena in 1997, he had to consistently prove himself to live upto those expectations, which he did over a period of time. Infact after playing some breathtaking knocks early on in his career, like the double century against India in 1999, Jayawardene failed to capture the imagination of the cricketing world. He was considered to be more about style and less about substance.

But the 2006 tour of England proved to be a landmark series for him as a cricketer. Till then he used to show flares of his genius in small bursts with the sword of inconsistency always hanging on his head. He was appointed the captain of the Sri Lankan team and he led from the front a Sri Lanka drew level the 3 test series at 1-1, while Jayawardene was the highest scorer for Sri Lanka in the series. Infact he considers his stellar century at Lord’s as the best innings he has ever played.

Since then, it has been no looking back for Jayawardene. He became the rock on which the entire team depended, scoring heavily in all the 3 formats of the game. His innings against South Africa of 376, in which he was involved with Kumar Sangakkara in a record partnership of 625 runs, is a tribute to his class, patience and solidarity.

However, Jayawardene’s biggest contribution to Sri Lankan cricket was as a captain. He was an astute and pro-active skipper who read the game very well. He instilled a sense of grit and steel in the side but made sure that his team still played the game in the right spirit. The 2007 world cup was probably the biggest high of his career where he excelled both as a batsmen and a captain.

So as Mahela Jayawardene calls it a day, his fans would be thronging the stands to see him in action against Pakistan to behold the sight of his wristy flicks, regal cover drives and that gentleman smile, for one last time.