Kosala Kulasekara

At a time when fast-bowling all-rounders are a rarity in the cricketing world, Sri Lanka have unearthed many such cricketers time and again, who have proved to be an asset to their team. One such name is that of Kosala Kulasekara.

Kosala's journey to cricket has been pretty unusual. He was an enthusiastic swimmer and had won third place in the All Island Swimming Championship. However, cricket was his second choice of sport and he soon developed more interest, giving up swimming. As a schoolboy cricketer, Kosala showed a lot of promise. Captaining the Central Province U17 and U19 teams, he went on to play for Sri Lanka in their U19 side in 2004 and performed extremely well with both, bat and ball in the U19 WC that year. His impressive showing helped him earn a scholarship to England in 2005 and also a captaincy stint with the Sri Lanka Cricket Academy.

Apart from being a regular in the first-class arena, Kosala turned out to be excellent while playing for Ruhunu in the Provincial One Day and T/20 tournament. A stand out fast bowler in the spin-dominated bowling attack of Ruhunu, he finished the T20 competition with 8 wickets and 81 runs – that included some big hitting and wicket-taking spells. He went on to have a fabulous 2009/10 season, representing his club Nondescripts in the three-day tournament, where he bagged 41 wickets to become the highest wicket-taker among fast bowlers. Kosala's hard work paid off as he was called-up to the national side in 2011, where he replaced injured Shaminga Eranga for the Test series against Pakistan and made his debut.