Dhananjaya de Silva

A technically correct top-order batsman from the southern reaches of the island, Dhananjaya de Silva briefly caught the national selectors' eye in 2015, then went on to have a bumper domestic season that marked him out for more intensive national duty. De Silva had been picked on potential in Sri Lanka's mid-year T20s against Pakistan, in 2015, but didn't quite convince he was a T20 batsman, hitting 45 off 47 balls across two innings. What followed, though, was an emphatic blooming.

De Silva first topped the batting charts in the Super T20 Provincial Tournament in early 2016, hitting 234 runs at a strike rate of 133, in six innings. Months later, he was the star of Tamil Union's first victorious first-class campaign in 55 years, hitting 868 runs at 54.20, which featured a crucial fourth-innings 121 in the match that clinched his team the title. Incredibly, though usually employed as a part-time offspinner, de Silva was also his club's most successful bowler that season, claiming 32 wickets at 14.23.

Those numbers helped earn him his first call-up to Sri Lanka's Test squad - for the England tour in May and June 2016.
Andrew Fernando, May 2016