Kumar Sangakkara

Sri Lanka|Wicketkeeper Batter
Kumar Sangakkara
INTL CAREER: 2000 - 2015
Browse other players
West Indies
All

Alphabetically sorted top ten of players who have played the most matches across formats in the last 12 months

Full Name

Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara

Born

October 27, 1977, Matale

Age

46y 144d

Batting Style

Left hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Offbreak

Fielding Position

Wicketkeeper

Playing Role

Wicketkeeper Batter

As soon as he broke into the side at the age of 22, while a law student, it was apparent that Kumar Sangakkara was destined for more than just batting stardom. The left-handers that had preceded him, like Arjuna Ranatunga and Asanka Gurusinha, had been pugnacious battlers but Sangakkara was cut from more graceful cloth, easing into strokes with the elegance often associated withthose that play with the 'other' hand. The cut and the pull came naturally to him and with growing confidence, he became a more assured front-foot player as well.

Ranatunga had already exploded the myth of the Sri Lankans being meek men who could be bullied, but Sangakkara has refined the belligerence, combining a suave exterior with cutting asides and sharp sledges from behind the stumps. Initially, his glovework wasn't for the purists, but such was his batting ability that there was no question of displacing him from the XI.

As a batsman, he has matured steadily, and the appetite for runs was best illustrated at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo in 2006, when he and Mahela Jayawardene, captain and close friend, added 624 against a South African attack boasting Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini. Sangakkara contributed 287 and did his burgeoning reputation no harm a year later when he went to Hobart and scored a dazzling 192 in a close defeat. By then, he already had a half-century in a World Cup final to his name, and long before Jayawardene relinquished the captaincy, it was understood that Sangakkara would be the anointed one.

He has been far less relentless in the one-day arena, often throwing his wicket away when well set, but his leadership qualities have made him a sought-after signing in the Indian Premier League. With the captain's burden on his shoulders, he no longer keeps in Test matches, but the smart-alec remarks from behind the stumps are a common feature of every game that Sri Lanka plays in coloured clothes.

Although leadership drew the best from him as a batsman, he remains a voracious no. 3 in all forms despite having relinquished the reins in 2011. Sangakkara won the top prize at 2012's ICC awards, in addition to the award for Test Cricketer of the Year and the People's Choice award for the second year running. Later that year he confirmed himself among batting's modern greats, by becoming the equal fastest man to 10,000 Test runs alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, with the biggest Test crowd Sri Lanka had ever played for in audience, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

.
Dileep Premachandran and ESPNcricinfo staff

Kumar Sangakkara Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s4s6sCtSt
Tests134233171240031957.402288254.19385214915118220
ODIs404380411423416941.981804878.86259313858840299
T20Is5653913827831.401156119.5508139202520
FC260430312091131952.40--6486--37133
List A529501541945616943.52--39120--518124
T20s2672602369379429.275487126.4204374013916760

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Tests134484490---3.50-000
ODIs404------------
T20Is56------------
FC260-24615011/13-150.003.65246.0-00
List A529-000-----000
T20s267------------
Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara

Explore Statsguru Analysis

Test
ODI
T20I

Recent Matches of Kumar Sangakkara

MatchBatWktDateGroundFormat
M.C.C. vs Sultans521c/0s19-Feb-2020LahoreT20
M.C.C. vs Northern101c/0s17-Feb-2020LahoreT20
M.C.C. vs Shaheens3--16-Feb-2020LahoreList A
M.C.C. vs Qalandars251c/0s14-Feb-2020LahoreT20
Sultans vs United10c/0s13-Mar-2018SharjahT20

Videos of Kumar Sangakkara

Photos of Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara enjoys some snacks
The Rajasthan Royals table at the IPL 2024 auction
Kumar Sangakkara has a chat with Karun Nair at Rajasthan Royals training
Kumar Sangakkara makes some new friends after arriving at the team hotel
The Rajasthan Royals table at the IPL 2022 auction
Kumar Sangakkara and Mike Hesson have a chat before the match