Thilan Samaraweera

Thilan Thusara Samaraweera is a Sri Lankan cricketer, born September 22, 1976 in Colombo. Samaraweera plays international cricket for Sri Lanka and is in the side primarily for his solid right-handed batting but is also a capable Off spinner.

Personal life

Thilan Samaraweera born in Colombo and had his education at Ananda College, Colombo. His brother, Dulip Samaraweera is also a Test cricket player who had played 4 Test matches in his career from 1993 to 1995. He is married and has 2 children.

International career

Samaraweera started his career as an offspinner who could bat a bit and could not find a way into the side due to the emergence of Muttiah Muralitharan. He managed a handful of ODI games in 1998 but did not play Test cricket until August 2001. Having worked on his batting considerably he got due reward by scoring century on debut against a strong Indian side helping Sri Lanka to win the series 2-1. He continued to star with the bat by scoring another two centuries in his next five Tests, all on his home ground, the SSC in Colombo. This stunning start to international cricket cemented his spot in the middle order, a spot which had holes to fill with the retirements of Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratne.

His off-spin has been rarely called upon by his captain but when he comes on he has earned a reputation as a partnership breaker.

After a poor Test series in England in which he failed to reach double figures in any of his four innings, he was dropped from...
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