Dhananjaya de Silva


Dhananjaya Maduranga de Silva, or commonly Dhananjaya de Silva is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays all forms in international arena and for Tamil Union in domestic cricket. In November 2017, he was named the Test batsman of the year for the 2016–17 season at Sri Lanka Cricket's annual awards.

Personal life

Dhananjaya de Silva was born on 6 September 1991 at Hambantota as the second son of the family with one elder brother and one younger brother. De Silva started his cricket career at his first school, Deberawewa National School in Tissamaharama, Hambanthota. He then briefly attended Mahanama College Colombo, before moving to Richmond College, Galle. He played his senior school cricket at Richmond College, Galle and captained the Richmond first XI cricket team in the 2010/2011 season.
His father, Ranjan de Silva was a politician and member of the Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council. On 25 May 2018, he was murdered by an unidentified gunman in front of the Ratmalana house. With the sudden death of his father, Dhananjaya withdrew from the Sri Lankan squad for the West Indies tour. However, he participated to the tour from second match onwards.

Domestic career

In March 2018, he was named as the vice-captain of the Colombo squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. The following month, he was also named in Colombo's squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament.
In August 2018, he was named in Galle's squad the 2018 SLC T20 League. In March 2019, he was named in Galle's squad for the 2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. Following the conclusion of the competition, he was named the player of the tournament.

International call

Debut days

He was named in Sri Lanka's Twenty20 International squad for their series against Pakistan in July 2015. He made his T20I debut on 30 July 2015. He scored 31 runs in his first international match, which Sri Lanka lost.
He made his One Day International debut against Ireland on 16 June 2016, as the 169th ODI cap for Sri Lanka.
In July 2016 he was named in Sri Lanka's Test squad for their series against Australia. On 26 July 2016 he made his Test debut for Sri Lanka against Australia. He became the first player for Sri Lanka to get off the mark in a Test match by scoring a six and the fifth overall. He took his first Test wicket by dismissing Peter Nevill in the second innings of the match.

Cementing permanent slot

His maiden Test century came during the third Test of same Australian tour. Sri Lanka were in trouble at 5/26, when de Silva joined Dinesh Chandimal to secure the side. The two stood a century partnership and de Silva scored his maiden ton of his career. De Silva was the highest run scorer in the series with 325 runs, including one century and one fifty, at an average of 65.00. Sri Lanka whitewashed Australia for the first time.
After Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan retired from ODIs, de Silva was promoted to his slot of opening position. He scored 76 runs in the match. This score stands as the highest score by a Sri Lankan opening the batting for the first time, beating Saman Jayantha's score of 74 in 2004. His poor performances against South Africa made him unavailable for the opening slot, but played as a middle order batsman.
De Silva continued his good performance throughout the two Tests against Zimbabwe. In the first match, he scored a fifty. Zimbabwe made 411 in chasing, with Sri Lanka winning the match. During the second Test, De Silva made a 142-run partnership with Upul Tharanga. Meanwhile, Tharanga was out caught at slip and de Silva continued by scoring his second Test century, in his fifth Test match of his career.

Ups and Downs

With poor performances in South Africa, De Silva was dropped from all squads. He was not initially included in Sri Lanka's ODI squad for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. However, Kusal Perera was ruled out of the tournament with a hamstring injury, and De Silva was called up to the squad. But he could not capitalize his worthiness in the squad and removed from the squad after the Champions Trophy.
He was recalled to the ODI series against India. De Silva was recalled to the Test squad for the third Test against India in 2017. He was dismissed for single run in the first innings. However, in the second innings, De Silva scored his third Test century. Shortly after, De Silva walked off the field with a thigh injury. The match was drawn with India winning the three-match series 1–0. His unbeaten 119 was the highest fourth-innings score by a visiting batsman in India.
During the first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong, De Silva scored his fourth Test century, which was his second consecutive century following the Delhi Test against India in the previous year. He along with Kusal Mendis made an unbeaten 187-run partnership at the end of second day of the match. On third day, the two piled 308-run partnership until de Silva was dismissed for 173 off Mustafizur Rahman. This was his highest Test score and De Silva passed 1,000 Test runs in 23 innings during the match, becoming joint-fastest Sri Lankan batsman to 1,000 Test runs along with Roy Dias and Michael Vandort. In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season.

Comeback

Dhananjaya was always in and out with the T20I squad since his debut in 2015 against Pakistan. However, strong performances in Test and ODIs, Dhananjaya was included to the one-off T20I against South Africa on 14 August 2018. In the match he showcased an all-round performance, with South Africa being bowled out for 99 runs, which was their lowest score in T20Is. During the chase, with Dinesh Chandimal, they made a 53-run partnership, guiding the team to victory. Due to his all-round performances, Dhananjaya won the man of the match award.
In April 2019, he was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. During the match against England, he took three wickets in nine deliveries to deliver a 20-run win over England. This was Sri Lanka's fourth consecutive win against England in World Cups.
On 15 December 2019 during the first Test against Pakistan, Dhananjaya scored his sixth Test century. With his unbeaten century, Sri Lanka posted 308 in first innings in a rain affected match, with the match finishing as a draw. On 10 January 2020, he scored his second T20I fifty in a run chase against India. However, Sri Lanka lost the match and the series.
On 1 March 2020, in the third ODI against the West Indies, de Silva injured his wrist during the match. He was later ruled out of the T20I series against the West Indies.