Ajantha Mendis

Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslow Mendis (අජන්ත මෙන්ඩිස්; born 11 March 1985) better known as Ajantha Mendis is a Sri Lankan former international cricketer who played for Sri Lankan national cricket team in all three formats.

He is also known as the "mystery spinner" due to the unusual bowling action variations.

Born on 11 March 1985, Mendis hails from a hamlet in Moratuwa.

He is the third child in a family of five with an elder brother and a sister.

He was raised Catholic.

He has had his basic education at St Anthony's College at Kadalana in his village where there were no facilities at all for sports.

During a cricket coaching class, Mendis' talents were initially identified by the school coach named Mr Lucky Rogers back in the year 1998 when he was just 13 years of age.

He subsequently entered Moratuwa Maha Vidyalaya in the year of 2000.

In the year 2000 he represented the school under 15 cricket team and he was selected to the first eleven team.

He also deputised for the school team captain.

This slow medium bowler with a variation of leg spin was adjudged the Best Bowler at the big-matches twice in 2001 and 2002.

Sri Lanka Artillery Cricket Committee noticed his talents when he played a cricket match against the Army under 23 Division 11 during 2003/2004 tournaments.

Following this he was invited to enlist in the regular force of the Sri Lanka Army, this was particularly due to the low number of cricketers from Colombo schools joining the Army in the recent years.

He enlisted, partly due to the reason that his father, the bread-winner for the family had died the week before due to a heart attack.

Following basic training he played for the army team and saw active military service as a Gunner in the Sri Lanka Artillery, a regiment of the Sri Lanka Army.

All this was developed during 2006/2007 domestic seasons on his own.

He also extended his purple patch in the domestic season 2007/2008 under 23 division 1 tournament and was later selected to the pool of "Academy Squad" organised by Sri Lanka Cricket.

There he was able to polish his cricketing skills further.

He had the opportunity of touring neighbouring India on an eight-day tour in June 2007 where he was given the opportunity to play two, two-day matches.

In the meantime, Sri Lanka Cricket selectors could not ignore his performance in the Premier Limited Over Tournament 2007/2008 and got him selected to play in the "Provincial Tournament 2008" representing "Wayamba Province" under the National Captain.

In that tournament he performed exceptionally well with the ball.

Local TV commentators predicted him as the ideal replacement for senior spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in time to come and nicknamed him as "Mysterious Bowler".

His performance in the said tournament got the National Selectors to observe him further closely, after he became the most successful bowler by taking 68 wickets in nine matches which is also a record in any form of domestic cricket.

Mendis made his One Day International debut against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 2008 and took 3 for 39.

He also played for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.

He holds the record for the fastest 50 wickets in ODIs with 19 matches.

His first Test Match was against India at Colombo on 23 July 2008 in which he returned match figures of 8–132, thereby becoming the first Sri Lankan bowler to get an eight-wicket haul on Test debut.

Mendis won the Emerging Player of the Year award at the ICC Awards ceremony held in Dubai in September 2008.

Following the Asia Cup final, he has been promoted to the rank of Sergeant on 7 July 2008 and the next day commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.

Mendis has represented the Army in 23 limited over matches and 59 two/three-day matches, in which he has 38 wickets and 244 wickets respectively to his credit.

Mendis bowls off spin as his stock delivery and he has few more variations in his armoury-leg spin, top spin and faster bowl.

On 18 May 2008, Kolkata Knight Riders signed Mendis, until the end of the 2008 season.

On 3 March 2009, the bus that carried the Sri Lankan cricketers to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, for the third day's play of the second Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, was fired at by masked gunmen.

In the 2010 County Championship Mendis was to play for Hampshire as their overseas player for the season as a replacement for Imran Tahir, but he was unable to fulfill his contract and never appeared for the county.

Until February 2017, he was the only bowler to have taken six wickets in a Twenty20 International, and he has achieved the feat twice, claiming the world record figures of 6 wickets for 8 runs for Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe on 18 September 2012 which was later broken by Deepak Chahar in 2019 in a T20I against Bangladesh.

On 26 October 2012, Ajantha Mendis received the Sri Lankan order of Bantu, the highest civilian honour in Sri Lanka.

At the 2013 Indian Premier League Auctions held in Chennai, India on 3 February 2013, Mendis proved to be one of the most expensive players sold, purchased by the Pune Warriors India for $725,000.

Mendis was a member of the Sri Lankan team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20.

Mendis played for Lahore Qalandars in Pakistan Super League held at U.A.E in February 2016.

In August 2019, he retired from all forms of cricket.