Batting style Right-hand bat Odi shirt number 14 | Role Batsman Bowling style Fast bowling | |
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Full name Downdegedara Asela Sampath Gunaratne Current team Sri Lanka national cricket team Similar Niroshan Dickwella, Suraj Randiv, Graham Ford | ||
Downdegedara Asela Sampath Gunaratne, commonly known as Asela Gunaratne (born 8 January 1986) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays all forms of the game. Gunaratne is an aggressive right-handed batsman who occasionally bowls part-time medium pace. He is currently serving in the Sri Lanka Army as a Bombardier attached to the 6th Field Regiment, Sri Lanka Artillery. He is a past pupil of Sri Rahula College, Kandy.
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International career
He was selected in the Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for Sri Lanka's tour to India in February 2016. He made his T20I debut on 14 February 2016, scoring four runs. Sri Lanka lost the match by 9 wickets.
He made his Test debut for Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe on 29 October 2016. He scored a fifty in the first innings of the first Test and scored his maiden Test century in the second match of the same tour.
He was selected in Sri Lanka's One Day International (ODI) team for Tri-Series in Zimbabwe, with West Indies being the third team. He made his ODI debut in the first match of the tri-series, against Zimbabwe and took 3 wickets.
South Africa 2017
Gunaratne scored his maiden ODI century on 11 February 2017 against South Africa at Centurion. His score stands as the highest ODI score at number six against South Africa. However, Sri Lanka lost the match by 88 runs.
Gunaratne was the first Sri Lankan to score an ODI hundred when batting at number six and also holds the record for the highest ODI score for Sri Lanka when batting at number 6 (114 not out).
Australia 2017
On 17 February 2017, against Australia, Gunaratne scored his maiden T20I fifty off 37 balls, helping the team to win the match by 5 wickets.
In the next T20I game he scored an unbeaten 84 runs off 46 balls to guide Sri Lanka to the series victory. He was adjudged man of the match in both games for his match-winning performances. Gunaratne set the record for the highest T20I score batting at number five or lower for Sri Lanka, with 84 not out. Gunaratne scored 37 runs off last 12 deliveries of the match to seal the game for Sri Lanka and they won their third consecutive T20I series win against Australia in Australia. After the third T20I, Gunaratne won the award for the player of the series.
Domestic career
In February 2017, he was bought by the Mumbai Indians team for the 2017 Indian Premier League for 30 lakhs.