Test Cricketer Asela Gunaratne proud product of Sri Rahula, Katugastota-by Upananda Jayasundera

Asela Gunaratne,former Sri Lanka Test Cricketer

Thirty five year old Asela Sampath Gunaratne, is a talented Test Cricketer who is an old Boy of Sri Rahula College,Katugastota. Six feet one inch.tall Asela learnt cricket from late Aubrey Kuruppu, who was the cricket coach of the School at that time and he played from under 13 to under 19 age group in school. Asela was a right hand bat, right arm medium pace bowler and an all-rounder and in the year 2007 he won four awards at Sri Lanka Cricket’s Annual Awards Ceremony, including two awards for Best All-rounder.His highest score was 159 runs against St.Aloysius College, Ratnapura and after leaving school he played for Saracens Sports club, Kandy under Aubrey Kuruppu for a few years before joining the Army.

He made his Test Debut on the 29th of October.2016 against Zimbabwe Cricket team as the 138th Test player and his last test was against the Indian Cricket Team on 26th of July 2017. He was the 176th player in ODI making his debut against Zimbabwe and his last ODI was on the 5th of January, 2019 against New Zealand. His Twenty20 debut was on the 14th of February,2016 against India as the 63rd Twenty20 Cricketer and his last Twenty/20 game was against India on the 24th of December, 2017.

Asela played in the domestic Tournaments from 2005 to 2008 for Mohamedian Sports club, Sri Lanka Army Cricket team from 2008 to date and in 2017 Mumbai, India,Dhaka-Dynamites and Comilla Victorians from 2018 to date. In 2019 he was in the Lahore Qualandars and in 2020 in the Kandy Tuskers team.

He was selected to the T/20 Squad for Sri Lanka’s Tour of India in February,2016 and he scored four runs in the first match of the series. He represented Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe and scored 50 runs 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 to the Sri Lanka’s One Day (ODI team) for Tri Series in Zimbabwe playing against West Indies being the third team and he took three wickets for 10 runs . He scored his maiden ODI century (114 not out) against South Africa and this was a record the highest ODI score at No.Six. In the year 2018 , he was one of the 33 cricketers to be awarded the National Contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018-19 season and in December,2018 he was named for the Sri Lanka team for ACC emerging Teams Asia Cup. Against Australia on 17th of February,2017 Asela scored his maiden Test fifty off 37 balls helping the team to win the match by five wickets. In the next match he scored an unbeaten 84 off 46 balls to guide Sri Lanka to victory in the series.In the third T/20 he maintained his batting form to score 37 runs off the last 12 deliveries to seal the game for Sri Lanka and they won their third consecutive T/20 series against Australia.