Sanath Jayasuriya went past a rare milestone on Saturday, completing 20 years in international cricket.
The dashing Sri Lanka opener made his debut on 26 December 1989, in Melbourne, against Australia. Kumar Sangakkara, the Lankan skipper, brought forth all his oratory skills to shower rich praise on Jayasuriya.
“He has been a great inspiration to Sri Lankan cricket from 1996 onwards when he turned ODI cricket on its head,” said Sangakkara.
Paying a huge compliment to the dashing opening batsman, Sangakkara revealed that there was a time when the whole dressing room would go silent at his dismissal.
“We just over depended on him. His sheer presence at that time gave us a sense of invincibility,” said the skipper.
The skipper credited Jayasuriya and his presence in the dressing room with helping them to move on from that situation and win matches without him. “But that doesn’t undermine Jayasuriya as a player. It has been a great journey with him and we are sure he has enjoyed every bit of it.”
The return of skipper MS Dhoni
{{/usCountry}}The return of skipper MS Dhoni
{{/usCountry}}MS Dhoni seems in a great rush to get back into the thick of action after serving a two-match ban.
The skipper was the first to pad up and rush to the nets for some practice. He faced the trio of Zaheer Khan, Sudeep Tyagi and Ashok Dinda for a while, and then joined the bowlers with his medium pace.
Later, when asked if the team was found wanting in his absence, Dhoni said Sehwag did a great job in leading the side to win in two matches and the team played well on the whole.
“There are few things that could have been better, but there’s no point in cribbing about something when you are sitting out,” he said.
Sachin goes missing from the nets
Sachin Tendulkar missed the net session on Saturday, sending rumour mills into overdrive. “He’s around and has just opted out of the practice session,” said MS Dhoni.
Sreesanth back
Sreesanth made a late and sudden appearance at the nets. The gregarious bowler looked keen to shake hands with the players around him, but the others didn’t appear to share the same exuberance and warmth.
They probably wanted to be doubly sure that the bowler was not carrying the swine-flu virus any more!