Thisara takes Sri Lanka cricket forward!
 Thisara Perea might be one of
the youngest players in the Sri Lankan camp but that hasn’t deterred
selectors from enlisting him in the IPL (Indian Premier League). Showing
potential even in club cricket, he was instumental in Colombo Colts
winning the Premier Tier A championship for 2008-09. He was said to have
managed the new ball excellently and also performed exceptionally with
the bat.
Thisara Perera can be called a “budding” allrounder. He has a left
hand bat (some have even compared him to Sanath Jayasuriya) but bowls
right arm medium pace. He is known to be a hard hitting batsman proved
by his first class strike rate of 90.21. In fact, statistics have shown
that he has done better as a batsman than a bowler. Thisara Perera is
one of a superb quartet of players produced by St Joseph’s College in
the past two years.
Thisara is a right arm fast-medium bowler (130 kmh speed) and a good
right hand batsman. He fared extremely well for Colts in the last Under-
23 tournament and continued to be one of their key players in the
recently concluded Premier Tournament which Colts won. Former Sri Lanka
wicketkeeper-batsman Romesh Kaluwitharana even praised Thisara greatly.
Thisara also proved his dynamism by being part of Sri Lanka’s Under-19
World Cup squad.
The promising young all-rounder was the only Sri Lankan player to
earn a contract at the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction. The
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bought Perera for US $50,000 while none of the
Pakistan players were sold at the auction. In all, 56 players remained
unsold out of 67 that went under the hammer. “It’s really a great
opportunity for me. To play among the stars in the Indian Premier League
is a big thing for me,” Perera said. The 20-year-old was all praise for
CSK captain Dhoni. “He is the most patient captain I have ever seen.
 He is extremely cool-headed on the field that inspires youngsters
like me. It’s really a dream-come-true that I am in a team which has
Dhoni as the captain,” he said. The southpaw earned a surprise national
call-up during Sri Lanka’s tour of India last year as emergency
replacement for Angelo Mathews and he grabbed the opportunity with both
hands.
Perera made his debut in Eden Gardens with a 14-ball 31 in Sri
Lanka’s 315 for six, but he shot to fame with an unbeaten 15-ball 36 -
his best from six ODIs - that helped Sri Lanka chase a 280-run target
against India in the tri-nation tournament in Mirpur.
Boasting an impressive ODI strike-rate of 161.53, Perera said: “I
always bat with aggression.
I try to hit the ball hard. My approach suits Twenty20 the most”. He
concluded, “I always enjoy big hitting. I like to bat more than I bowl.
But it always helps if I contribute with the ball as well.”
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