Thisara time
Narangoda Liyanaarachchilage Thisara Chirantha Perera,(Sinhalese: à¶ිසර පෙරේරා; born 3 April 1989), popularly as Thisara Perera, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who currently represents Sri Lanka in limited over formats and is the current limited overs captain for Sri Lanka.[1] Domestically he plays for Colts Cricket Club, Rising Pune Supergiants, Wayamba Wolves, and have recently joined Gloucestershire squad to play NatWest T20 Blast. Primarily a bowling all-rounder, he is an aggressive left-handed batsman who can hit big sixes in death overs and is a useful right-arm medium-fast bowler.
On 26 July 2013 against South Africa, Perera hit Robin Peterson for 35 runs in one over. (6,Wd, 6,6,6,4,6), which is recorded as the second most expensive over in ODI History.
Perera was a part of the Sri Lankan team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20.[2] On 12 February 2016, Perera joined Brett Lee to takehat-tricks in both ODI & T20I.[3] In Australia he is known by his nickname "panda", which was bestowed upon him by George Bailey during his stint at BBL with the Brisbane Heat, although he prefers "TP".[4]
Early career
Thisara Perera started his cricket career as a teenager at St. Anthony's College, Wattala.[5]He later attended the prestigious St. Joseph's College, Colombo, which has produced Sri Lankan cricketers such as Chaminda Vaas,Angelo Mathews and Dimuth Karunaratne. He represented Sri Lanka at various youth levels, and was selected for the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. In November 2008, he made his first class debut for the Colts Cricket Club.[2] He has picked up 41 wickets in 18 U19 ODIs.He's also the leading wicket taker for Sri Lanka national under-19 cricket team without grabbing a fifer in his career.[6]
International career
ODI career
Thisara Perera batting against England
Perera made his international debut for Sri Lanka in December 2009, in a late call-up to play in an ODI against India in Kolkata.[2] He took his first five-wicket haul in international cricket in August 2010, earning him the player of the match award in an ODI victory over India.[7] He took five wickets in an ODI against Australia on the same tour.[8]
Perera was a member of Sri Lanka's squad for the 2011 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. He was part of the team defeated in the final of the tournament by India, scoring 22 not out off ten deliveries and taking the wicket of Gautam Gambhir.[9] He was not selected for the Test series against Pakistan later in the year, being retained only for the ODI and Twenty20 sides, but was recalled to the Test team for the end-of-yeartour of South Africa[10] He played two ODIs on the tour and scored his first half-century in the format—69 not out off 44 balls—to help Sri Lanka to victory in the fourth of the five-match series in Kimberley.[11] In the 2nd ODI of 2012 series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he done brilliant late-order hitting and became first ever person to take 6 wickets against Pakistan in an ODI - his career best. This performance won him the Man of the Match as well.[12] In the 4th ODI of the same series, he shocked Pakistan by taking a hat-trick[13]and managing a run-out in his maiden over took the wicket of saajid and became first Sri Lankan to register a hat-trick against Pakistan.[14]
Perera also has the record for the highest ODI score for Sri Lanka when batting at number 9 position or lower when he scored unbeaten 80 runs.[15]
Test career
He was selected in Sri Lanka's Test squad for a series against England. He made his debut in the first Test of the series at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff.[ In an innings defeat, he scored 25 and 20 with the bat and took no wickets. He was not selected for the Test series against Pakistan later in the year, being retained only for the ODI and Twenty20 sides, but was recalled to the Test team for the end-of-year tour of South Africa. He played in all three Tests of the tour, scoring 81 runs and taking five wickets.[10]
T20 International Career
In May 2010, he made his Twenty20international debut, representing Sri Lanka in the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies.[2]
He was a member of the Sri Lankan team that in October 2010 inflicted Australia's first defeat in a Twenty20 international in Australia, bringing up Sri Lanka's final 16 runs to win the match off three deliveries.[16]
Perera also contributed to the win 2014 ICC World Twenty20 championship which was Sri Lanka's first World T20I title. In that innings against India in the final, Perera had an unbeaten partnership with Kumar Sangakkaraand hit the winning boundary.
He also took a Hat-Trick on 12 February 2016 in a T20I series against India, which is the fourth overall and first by a Sri Lankan. However, he was gone for nought in batting and Sri Lanka lost the match by 69 runs.[17]
He has played the most number of T20I innings(45) for Sri Lanka without scoring a T20I fifty and also holds the record for scoring most number of T20I runs for Sri Lanka without hitting any fifties.[18]
He too has the record for the highest individual score for Sri Lanka when batting at number 7 position or lower in Twenty20 International (49) and also jointly holds the record for Sri Lanka for the highest score batting at number 8 position in T20I along with Angelo Mathews(35*)[19]
In August 2017, he was named in a World XIside to play three Twenty20 International matches against Pakistan in the 2017 Independence Cup in Lahore.[20] In the second T20I of the series, Perera took 2 wickets and scored an unbeaten 19-ball 47 runs to lift the World XI to win by 7 wickets. The score highlighted by five huge sixes and Perera won the man of the match award for his match winning all-round performances.[21]
Captaincy
In October 2017, against Pakistan he was named as captain for Sri Lanka for 3 match T20I series.[22]This announcement came after Sri Lanka Cricket confirmed that the fixture inLahore would go ahead as planned and their limited-overs captain, Upul Tharanga, had pulled out of the match due to security reasons.[23] The Sri Lankan squad arrived in Lahore under "extraordinary" security and made their way to the team's hotel in a bomb-proof bus.[24] Ahead of the T20I in Lahore, Cricket Sri Lanka's president Thilanga Sumathipala said that the team was privileged to be in Pakistan and that he would help support the country in hosting more tours.[25]Najam Sethi, chairman of the PCB, said that this fixture would be the start of international cricket returning to the country, with him expecting every country to play in Pakistan by the end of 2020.[26] Despite all those efforts, Sri Lanka suffered another whitewash and lost the T20I series 3–0.[27]
On 29 November 2017, Perera was named as Sri Lanka's captain for the ODI and T20I matches against India, replacing Upul Tharanga.[28] The change came due to poor performance and whitewash losses under Tharanga's captaincy.[1]
His first ODI captaincy came in the first ODI against India at Dharamsala. In the match, Perera won the toss and elected to field first. The result gave full sorts of validity, where the Sri Lankan pacers led by Suranga Lakmaldevastated the Indian batting line up. At one time, India were seven down for just 39 runs, until MS Dhoni paced the innings to reach India's total over hundred. Finally India scored 112 runs and Perera took the wicket of Dhoni as the final wicket of the innings. This 112 ranked as India's third-lowest in ODIs at home and their lowest at home when batting first.[29]Sri Lanka comfortably won the match by 7 wickets and finished their 12 ODI loss streak as well.[30] Finally, Sri Lanka lost the ODI series 1-2.[31] In the T20I series, Sri Lanka suffered a 3 loss whitewash, by giving 6 consecutive losses under Perera's captaincy.[32]
Domestic and franchise cricket
Perera made his List A and first-class debuts for Colts Cricket Club on in November 2008.[33][34] Barely a year later he was called up to the national team and made his senior international debut.[35]
Indian Premier League
Perera was purchased by the Chennai Super Kings for US$50,000 in the auction for the2010 Indian Premier League.[36]
His price increased for the 2011 Indian Premier League, fetching US$80,000 from theKochi Tuskers Kerala.[37]
During the 2016 Indian Premier Leagueauction he was sold to new franchise Rising Pune Supergiants for INR 1 crore in the second round.[38]
Big Bash League
Perera joined Melbourne Renegades in January 2017 after Renegades star all rounder, Dwayne Bravo, suffered a hamstring injury.
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