Sajeewa de Silva was one of the several fast medium bowlers who were tried out by Sri Lanka in the late 1990s. A whippy left-armer who could move the ball both ways, Sajeewa had the ability to excel even on surfaces that weren’t conducive to the quicks. However, he didn’t have the stamina to excel in Test cricket and was dumped after a handful of appearances. In ODIs though, Sajeewa got a longer run and
found moderate success, due to his twin ability of containing and picking wickets. He wasn’t the easiest to get away, especially due to the late swing he generated and this fetched him a lot of scalps in ODIs, especially with the new ball. Although his form never really dipped, a few injuries saw him out of the side in 2000 and he wasn’t able to make a comeback after that.

Written by Hariprasad Sadanandan