Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan were all born almost within a year of each other in the years 1976-1977. The three of them together have been the pillar of Sri Lankan Cricket in the first decade of the 21st century, carrying the team on their shoulders ever since the heroes of the 1996 World Cup victory retired. Together, they have captained 64 Tests, 189 ODIs and 46 T20Is between them since 2000, and taken their country to two consecutive ODI World Cup finals. This is as close to a “fab three” as one could imagine in the history of Sri Lankan Cricket.
However, now that all the three players are 37+ years old and talks of their retirement are gathering steam, it is worthwhile the future Sri Lankan Cricket has ahead of them. Does the Sri Lankan team have enough bench strength to build upon their current success, just as the “fab three” did in the 2000s? This is the question we attempt to answer in this article.
First, let as look at the One-day format. To understand how much big a vacuum the three will leave behind after their retirement, let us look at the percentage of runs scored by the top three batsmen of all Test-playing countries for their respective teams in ODIs since 2011.
| Team | Percentage of runs scored by top three batsmen in ODIs since 2011 |
|---|---|
| Sri Lanka | 46.9 |
| South Africa | 46.7 |
| Pakistan | 41.4 |
| Zimbabwe | 40.0 |
| India | 39.6 |
| New Zealand | 39.0 |
| Bangladesh | 38.6 |
| England | 35.7 |
| West Indies | 30.6 |
| Australia | 30.2 |
The table shows that the top three batsmen of Sri Lanka – which indeed happen to be Jayawardene, Sangakkara and Dilshan – scored 46.9% of all the runs for their team in the ODIs since 2011, which is almost half of the total runs scored by Sri Lanka in the ODIs in this period. The only other team which comes close to Sri Lanka is South Africa, but their top three batsmen are AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla, none of whom are retiring anytime soon. Sri Lanka is really looking down a steep cliff here, and the departure of their top 3 after the 2015 World Cup will leave a big hole in their batting line-up.
Now let us look at the same statistic, this time for Test matches. This is show in the table below.
| Team | Percentage of runs scored by top three batsmen in Tests since 2011 |
|---|---|
| Sri Lanka | 45.6 |
| Pakistan | 45.2 |
| South Africa | 44.0 |
| New Zealand | 41.4 |
| West Indies | 40.1 |
| Zimbabwe | 39.7 |
| England | 39.4 |
| Bangladesh | 37.5 |
| Australia | 37.3 |
| India | 31.5 |
Again, Sri Lanka comes out on the top, followed closely by Pakistan and South Africa. The difference this time is that the top three batsmen for Sri Lanka in tests includes Angelo Mathews instead of Dilshan. The total contribution of Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Dilshan comes out to be 40.4%, which is still substantial. More worrying for Sri Lanka, though, is the contribution of the batsmen after these four. The following table shows the top 13 batsmen of Sri Lanka since 2011.
| Batsman | Innings | Runs | Centuries | Half centuries | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KC Sangakkara | 65 | 3750 | 13 | 17 | 62.50 |
| AD Mathews | 57 | 2534 | 4 | 16 | 58.93 |
| DPMD Jayawardene | 62 | 2295 | 6 | 12 | 38.25 |
| TM Dilshan | 40 | 1509 | 5 | 7 | 37.73 |
| TT Samaraweera | 34 | 1082 | 2 | 5 | 34.90 |
| JK Silva | 26 | 954 | 1 | 6 | 36.69 |
| LD Chandimal | 24 | 934 | 3 | 5 | 44.48 |
| HAPW Jayawardene | 34 | 910 | 2 | 2 | 31.38 |
| NT Paranavitana | 32 | 836 | 0 | 6 | 28.83 |
| FDM Karunaratne | 25 | 703 | 0 | 4 | 30.57 |
| HDRL Thirimanne | 28 | 617 | 1 | 2 | 25.71 |
| HMRKB Herath | 52 | 547 | 0 | 0 | 13.68 |
| WU Tharanga | 8 | 306 | 0 | 2 | 38.25 |
This table shows the thin batting bench strength of Sri Lanka. Beyond the top 4, the remaining batsmen have not had much of an impact so far. Samaraweera and Paranavitana have played sparingly since 2012, and Chandimal has stumbled this year after averaging nearly 100 in 2013. Prasanna Jayawardene has been overtaken by Niroshan Dickwella as the future wicket-keeper. Kaushal Silva has been a steady contributor, but none of these players bring with them the same pedigree as the top four. It will indeed be a big challenge for Sri Lanka to fill in the gap that will be left by the “fab three”.
To a great extent, Sri Lanka at least have their leadership sorted out for the near future. Angelo Mathews has done quite well as skipper in all the three formats of the game, and is contributing well with both the bat and ball. However, the retirement of three top-order batsmen at the same time from the international team is an unprecedented event in Cricket history. It will certainly be the end of an era for Sri Lanka, and it remains to be seen if they can supplement their team with fresh talent for the start of a renewed period of dominance of Sri Lankan Cricket.