Kumar Sangakkara (Sanga)

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When a left-handed batsman plays a shot, especially the cover drives it's like a pure display of art, elegance, and class. It's not like right-handers don't but when a left-handed batsman plays, the shots get more structured, more layers of elegance and class get added to it which makes our eyes delighted to watch. Especially when that left-hander batsman is Kumar Sangakkara, the player who played with pure determination, and with some graceful and class-defining strokes, and as Harsha Bhogle says, was a gift to our game.

Born on 27 October 1977 in Matale, the Sri Lankan legend was a house of talent, during his school days along with cricket he also excelled in other sports like tennis and badminton, a good violinist and also smart at studies. "The Trinity Lion" and "Ryde Gold Medal" the two prestigious awards of Trinity College Kandy, Sangakkara has both in his cabinet.

Running down to cricket, Sanga (Sangakkara's nickname) was more focused and eventually his hard work and ability to score consistently landed him to the Sri Lanka's international team at the age of 22 while studying law. (Knock of 156 vs Zimbabwe A for the Sri Lanka A side, showed the glimpse of those delicacy strokes to the world before coming to the international stage).

Making his International ODI debut vs Pakistan, 2000, in a tri-series at Galle, it did not take much time for Sanga to set his boots at international stage. With the knock of 85 not out vs South Africa in his 2nd ODI he was up and running (For this knock he received the first man of the match award of the career and was also the second leading run scorer for Sri Lanka in the series). Following series he made his test debut vs South Africa, 2000. 

Just 2 years into his International career, Sangakkara brought up his first double century vs Pakistan at the 2nd Asian test championship final, assisting Sri Lanka to clinch the championship. Well, who would have thought at that time that this lad will inch closer to Bradman's record of most double centuries (12) falling just one short, also including a triple century. One such double century was the 287 vs South Africa, 2006 recording the highest partnership of 624 runs for the third wicket with another legend and his close friend Mahela Jayawardene. Together both have a record for the most partnership runs for the 3rd wicket in test cricket history, scoring 5890 runs. 

"Let me put it straight. Kumar Sangakkara is the best batsman that Sri Lanka has ever produced." 

                                     - Mahela Jayawardene

It is said you keep getting better and better if you keep learning. Sangakkara was always a brilliant back foot player. The pull shot and cut were like bread and butter to him. As his career progressed, Sanga learned and brought a switch to his batting style, made himself comfortable on the front foot and started playing cover drives as brilliantly as those back foot shots. Also brought a swift versatility to his batting and started hitting balls at his will and not just playing an anchor role for his team

With 678 dismissals to his name across all formats, Sangakkara's name appears among the top 5 wicket-keepers of all time. A sharp-witted mind, understanding the game more than anyone else was a significant wicket keeper as he is being on the front of the wicket as a batsman. Though he gave up wicket keeping in tests, his stats as wicket keeper in ODI adds more glory to his stats as a batsman. The wicket keeper with the most number of dismissals 482 (Catches : 383, Stumping : 99) in ODI history. In 2009 one more feature was added to his career when he received the responsibility of captaincy from his long time buddy Mahela Jayawardene.

With the loss in the finals of 2011 World Cup vs India and keeping the future of the team in mind Sangakkara gave up the captaincy of ODI and T20 while continuing for the Test. Leaving captaincy didn't affect his batting and wicket keeping; he continued to achieve records and assisting Sri Lankan team to add more glory to their campaign. 

Concluded his T20 career with the glory of winning the T20 World Cup, 2014. In the same year he achieved the record of scoring most runs i.e. 2868 runs in a single year across format which is still to be broken. He concluded his ODI career after the end of ICC World Cup 2015 accumulating 541 runs at an average of 108.20 being the second leading scorer of the tournament. Though his test career did not end with a win, losing to India by a big margin of 278 runs, that match doesn't define the great career he had across all the years. After retiring from international cricket he continued to play some County cricket and league games until hanging up his boots in the 2017. 

Records & Achievements

* Second highest run scorer in ODI history (14,234) after Sachin Tendulkar.

* Record for scoring most consecutive hundreds in ODI cricket (4) made during the 2015 World Cup.

* Sixth highest run scorer in the test cricket (12,400) and fastest batsman to score 9000, 10000, 11000 and 12000 runs in test cricket.

* Won three awards in 2012 : Cricketer of the year, Test Cricketer of the year and People Choice award.

* Became the first non-British President of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

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           Written by - Ankit Thakkar