And then there was Mendis | Srilanka Cricket 2008 Review

January 3, 2009

A new dawn: Mendis has already almost taken over the mantle of main match-winner for Sri Lanka

Two thousand eight, according to Chinese astrology, was the Year of the Rat. For Sri Lanka cricket, it was the year of Ajantha Mendis.

The 23-year-old burst into the limelight in the Caribbean in April, bemusing the best of West Indies batsmen, who were at sea against the five varieties of spin he bowled. When Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene threw the ball to Mendis in the first one-day international, in Port-of-Spain, little did anyone realise that it would herald a new genre of spin.

Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan came into the limelight at a time when the art of spin bowling was dying. In the next 15 years or so they raised it to a level it had never attained before. But nothing lasts forever. Warne left the game in 2007 and Muralitharan is nearing the end of the road. The old fears were back that spin would become a dying art.

Then came Mendis.

Dwayne Bravo, the West Indies allrounder, recalled his first sighting: "[Ramnaresh] Sarwan had problems picking him, and from the time we saw this, most of the batsmen retreated to the dressing room and had a close look at his hand on the TV monitor." However, the best quote came from Rob Steen, on Cricinfo: "I have just seen the future of spin bowling - and his name is Ajantha Mendis."

Mendis really came into the limelight in his second ODI series, the Asia Cup in Pakistan, where he spun his team to a remarkable 100-run victory over favourites India in the final in Lahore.

He continued to torment the Indian batting when they toured Sri Lanka for a three-Test series and lost it 2-1. The difference was Mendis, who broke a 62-year-old record, held by England fast bowler Alec Bedser, by taking the most wickets in a debut series - 26.

The strong Indian batting line-up of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman was left so bemused by the mystics of Mendis' spin that they managed only three fifties between them.
With Mendis catching so much world attention it was no surprise when he won the ICC's Emerging Player of the Year award.

New kid on the block Ajantha Mendis, who promises to become Sri Lankan cricket's new chief match-winner, succeeding Muttiah Muralitharan, who has held the mantle for many years.