Kamindu Mendis Leaps Unto The World Cricket Stage-by Nick Brookes
Source:Thuppahis
Cast your mind back to January. Kamindu was on the outside looking in – yet to make a mark in any form of international cricket. For years, he’d been ‘the next cab off the rank’, yet that tag is misleading. Kamindu was more like a tuk-tuk driver searching for passengers in the wilderness; waiting for a fare which increasingly looked like it may never arrive.
Nine months later, he’s in an entirely different position: not just a three-format player, but a fulcrum for Sri Lanka; a centrepiece to build around moving forward. It feels strange that he batted eight in his last ODI; when Sri Lanka next play 50-over cricket, he’ll surely be ensconced in the top four. He’ll bat at three in T20s for the foreseeable future. Yet, of course, it’s in Tests that he’s truly set the world alight.
His achievements have been unfathomable, his presence revitalising a resurgent Sri Lanka. At this point, it seems needless to regurgitate the hackneyed statistics. You’ve seen them 1,000 times on Twitter. But, I’m revelling in them. So let’s go for 1,001. Kamindu has:
Become the only player in history to pass 50 in all of his first eight Tests. (Only six players – Kallis, Hayden, Stewart, Weekes, Edrich and Richards – have scored 50s in nine or more consecutive matches across the course of their careers).
Equalled Bradman’s record of 1,000 Test runs in his first 13 innings. Only Everton Weekes and Herbert Sutcliffe managed it faster (both in 12 innings). Kamindu has become the fastest left-hander, the fastest Asian batter and the fastest in 75 years to 1,000 runs.
Scored 100s in his first Test against Bangladesh, England and New Zealand.
Become the 7th Sri Lankan to score twin hundreds.
Those are some achievements. And check out this bar chart, showing his scores in Test cricket so far:
That’s a lot of tall towers. Strikingly, Kamindu is yet to be dismissed between 15 and 60. And he’s only been out three times between 50 and 100: on debut, and twice against England this summer. Both of the English dismissals come with caveats. At Lord’s, he looked to hit out with only Asitha at the other end; at The Oval, he fell restarting his innings after ending the second day 54*.
Essentially, once he’s set, he’s very hard to dismiss. For the moment at least, he looks like a player who simply has to get to 10. When he does that, you feel like he’s on for a big one.
The ease with which he’s taken to Test cricket is especially surprising given the oft-discussed gulf in standard between international cricket and Sri Lanka’s first-class game. Prior to Kamindu’s emergence, the fastest Sri Lankans to 1,000 runs in Tests were Roy Dias, Dhananjaya de Silva and Michael Vandort – who all took 23 innings. This is an unprecedented run. Let’s take a deeper look at some of the features of Kamindu’s game which have allowed him to thrive so far.
A solid defence
It’s not the most glamorous part of his game, but Kamindu’s success has been grounded on rock-solid defence against the seamers. His approach is clear: against length balls in the off-stump channel, he shelves attacking shots – rebuffing the bowler with excellent technique.
Isn’t that defensive stroke a thing of beauty? Kamindu’s bat comes down in a clean line, his body right behind the ball, his movements precise and compact. He doesn’t take a big stride or push away from his body – instead, he plays it late, right under his eyes, the ball landing almost at his feet. It’s the kind of shot that sends a message to the bowler: Try something else. We see the same against Will O’Rourke:
Here, he shows a little more of his stumps, with his bat initially skewed slightly towards first slip. Yet, he shuffles across and straightens his backlift by the time the bowler is into his action. Again, he blocks with real authority, right under his nose and with his body behind the ball.
His judgment and temperament have also been impressive. Against the quicks, he’s scored strikingly few runs through the V. In his hundred at Old Trafford, he didn’t take a single run off the seamers between mid-on and mid-off. The story was similar in Sylhet – his 164 featured two scoring shots against the quicks through the V.
Clearly, Kamindu’s identified the off/fourth-stump line as the danger zone. When seamers land the ball there, he’s patient and respectful: happy to defend with minimal fuss, and wait for deliveries in his areas.
Of course, lots of batters still get themselves into trouble defending. But thus far, Kamindu’s defence has been resolute. At no stage has he looked in danger of being bowled or trapped lbw against quicks – his last 10 dismissals have all been caught, often when he’s attempting attacking shots. He’s only been bowled once in his Test career – on debut, when he was undone trying to sweep leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson.
It won’t grab many headlines, but the ability to identify and keep out good balls with confidence has been a cornerstone of Kamindu’s batting in Tests.
- Strength square of the wicket
Kamindu’s restraint around off stump has been especially effective since it has been tied to devastating clarity when bowlers miss their spots. In my opinion, his willingness to attack balls outside off stump was the defining feature of his play through the England series. When seamers stray marginally wide, he’s quick to pounce with a flashing blade – making full use of his long levers, supple wrists and fast hands:
Equally, he’s assured enough to attack balls many others would defend. Take this delivery from Gus Atkinson. It’s on a good length, shaping back in, not quite wide enough to leave. Lots of batters would get themselves in a tangle nervously pushing at it, but Kamindu trusts his eye and technique. He keeps a high elbow, maintains his shape, plays through the line and dismisses it to the fence.
And as you’d expect from a player polished enough to attack the good balls, Kamindu is ruthless when bowlers overpitch. Here, he dismisses a Nahid Rana half-volley with the placement and timing which are quickly becoming his trademarks:
Width is his bread and butter; square drives, cuts and punches the jewels in his crown. Yet, he is just as quick to punish bowlers when they get too straight. Here, he takes a Rana delivery off middle stump, sending it into the stands with a flick of the wrists:
With Kamindu at the crease, bowlers don’t have to miss their marks by much to end up getting punished. When O’Rourke strays onto middle stump, Kamindu jumps on the ball with consummate ease, flicking it away to the fine-leg boundary for four:
Ultimately, Kamindu’s ability to score on both sides of the wicket, and his clarity in attacking when seamers stray marginally either side of the off-stump channel, make him a nightmare proposition. In order to keep him quiet, bowlers have to maintain consistently tight lines. As soon as they miss, they find themselves under real pressure.
- Stand tall, play late
‘Get your foot to the pitch of the ball’.
It’s one of the first things young cricketers are taught, an old adage repeated by coaches across generations. Yet, some of Test cricket’s most prodigious runmakers have looked to hang deep in their crease and play the ball late. Joe Root, Brian Lara and Steve Smith come to mind. Kamindu takes a similar approach.
Like all good players of pace, he picks up length quickly. There’s no discernible trigger movement, and against the quicks at least, he doesn’t take a big stride forward. Instead, his instinct seems to be to play off the back foot: he stands tall, remains still and watches the ball right onto his bat. Playing the ball late, right under his eyes, has helped him cope well with variable bounce and movement.
Look at this punch against Olly Stone. Kamindu makes no real effort to move forward or back. He simply stands still, maintaining a great head position and letting the ball come to him:
This simple technique, and the emphasis he places on watching the ball for as long as possible, has meant he looks very comfortable against shorter bowling:
Equally, when bowlers go full, Kamindu doesn’t plant his front foot. Instead, he transfers weight late – remaining compact and driving with economy of movement. He doesn’t fall over, and his head always seems to be right over the ball at the point of contact. Unsurprisingly, more often than not he times it sweetly:
- Comfort against pace
Sri Lankan batters are often felt to be fallible against the fastest bowlers. That’s understandable: tracks at home don’t generally offer pace and bounce; spinners dominate, so batters tend to be less exposed to quicks.
At Old Trafford, Mark Wood’s pace discomfited Kamindu’s more experienced teammates. In the first innings, he drew extra bounce and got the ball to balloon off Kusal Mendis’ glove. Second time around, he did for Karunaratne with his very first ball, then sent Chandimal to hospital.
Yet Kamindu always looks to have time. In the second innings at Old Trafford, Wood came after him with a fiery spell of short-pitched bowling. Kamindu might well have been cowed – after all, this was his first-ever game in England, and his first time facing arguably the world’s fast bowler. Instead, he took Wood on with confidence and clarity, sending the second ball he bowled him into the stands:
Here, he employs the same approach against Nahid Rana – unfazed by a well-directed, 140 kmph bouncer, he takes it on and hits it for six:
Of course, Kamindu’s comfort against pace and bounce owes much to his eye and his ability to judge length early. Yet, it also reflects a fearlessness. At Lord’s, when Olly Stone tried to bounce him out, he top-edged into the grille of his helmet. Many batters would have put the shot away, but Kamindu was nonplussed, and carried on hooking him beyond the boundary. Clearly, he backs his technique and ability – and doesn’t allow his decision-making to be clouded by negative thinking. As Dinesh Chandimal put it during the Old Trafford Test,
‘He’s a world-class player, as far as I’m concerned. When I had a chat with him after the game, I asked him ‘What is the secret?’ He said, ‘I’m in a positive mind[set]’. It’s really good for the team if you have a player like him.’
- Proactivity against spin
All my analysis so far has focused on Kamindu’s game against pace – but it goes without saying that to thrive in Sri Lanka, you have to be a quality player of spin. Kamindu fits that bill. Perhaps the most astounding stat of all is that he’s averaging 178 against spinners in his Test career so far.
While his game against the seamers is defined by small, precise movements, he’s much busier against the turning ball – happy hitting with or against the spin, and unfurling a broad array of strokes.
En route to making 182* against New Zealand, he toyed with the spinners. Kamindu’s quick to use his feet – often dancing down the wicket, smothering the spin and putting pressure back on the bowler by taking the aerial route. Here, he latches onto a wide delivery from Ajaz Patel, launching the bowler over wide mid-off:
Two overs later, Ajaz lands the ball in a near-identical spot. Again, Kamindu shuffles down the track. Yet this time, possibly responding to the slightly fuller length, he waits a little longer, hits with the spin and comfortably clears long-on:
Equally, he’s confident playing the sweep – with the full-blooded slog sweep proving especially productive. Here, Ajaz tosses the ball up outside off stump again. This time, he disappears over cow corner:
The fact that Kamindu can dispatch more or less the same ball to three different parts of the ground gives a sense of why he’s so tough to bowl at. He has the range of strokes and the attacking impulses to manipulate fields and give spinners real headaches.
Through the course of the innings, he also had great success reverse sweeping. We saw fine paddles, balls hit hard in front of square – and this impressive piece of improvisation against Glenn Phillips:
And as you’d expect from such a strong back-foot player, when the spinners drop too short, Kamindu gets into a great position and dismisses them with ease.
Hopefully, the above analysis gives some sense of why Kamindu has enjoyed so much success thus far in his Test career. He has a clear and consistent approach; he’s solid in defence and fearless in attack; he plays the ball late and maintains a great head position; and looks equally comfortable against high pace and the turning ball.
But, what does notching 1,000 runs so quickly mean? Is it a guarantee that Kamindu will end up as one of the all-time greats? Not necessarily. A couple of examples might give Sri Lanka fans cause for concern. Vinod Kambli scored 1,005 runs in his first 14 Test innings – yet his next 7 yielded just 79, and he was quickly discarded. Gary Ballance provides another cautionary tale: he scored 1,029 in his first 17 innings and 479 runs in his next 25. That said, both Kambli and Ballance were exposed by short-pitched bowling, which seems unlikely to be an issue for Kamindu.
Of course, it is always hard to sense a coming storm when the sun’s shining – but if there’s a chink in Kamindu’s armour, it is that he may be prone to nicking off early when he pushes at balls outside the off stump, especially from round the wicket.
Take a look at this dismissal, in the first Test against England:
It is strikingly similar to the first ball he faced in his Test comeback, en route to a maiden century in Bangladesh. Cricket is a game of small margins: had this chance stuck, would it have changed things for Kamindu?
More recently, we saw the same issue spring up against Will O’Rourke, twice in quick succession:
Notably, all the above nicks have come early in his innings, when Kamindu pushes at balls away from his body, rather than looking to attack. More commonly, he’s gone after bowlers and peppered the square boundary. In my mind, he must continue to do so: he’s scored so heavily against balls outside the off stump, that the occasional edge is a natural and necessary trade-off. Even if Kamindu were to endure a run of low scores, I reckon he must stick to his aggressive approach. After all, his success so far has owed much to positivity, clarity of thought and a lack of hesitation.
Who knows where Kamindu will end up. All Sri Lanka fans will hope he’s headed for greatness, yet regardless of what comes next, he’s etched his name into the history books with his achievements over the past nine months. He’s shaken off the tag of ‘the ambidextrous bowler’; now, he’s known as one of the world’s most exciting left-handed batters.
The kind of player you stop what you’re doing to watch.
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