Kavisha Dilhari

Kavisha Dilhari, a spin-bowling allrounder, made quite a start to her international career at just 17. In only her second ODI, in September 2018, she held her nerve to end Sri Lanka's ten-match losing streak (stretching back to 2013) against India, hitting two fours to seal the game. One of those was an audacious Dilscoop off seamer Mansi Joshi. Then, on her first tour of South Africa, she ran out Sune Luus for backing up too far at the bowler's end.

Dilhari is from Rathgama, a village close to Galle from which Lasith Malinga hails. With support from her father, a fisherman, she began her cricketing journey. At 14, she was a right-arm seamer but switched to offspin on the advice of her school coach Mahesh Sandaruwan. She was part of Sri Lanka's national camp by the end of 2016, and received her maiden ODI call-up in March 2018. Later that year, she also made her T20I debut and went on to feature in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies.

"She showed great maturity for someone her age. In match situations, she's a very competitive beast," Simon Willis, Sri Lanka's high-performance manager, had said after her maiden call-up. "We believe she's someone we need to back."

In early 2019, Dilhari suffered a stress fracture of her back, putting her out of action for the better part of that year. Hoping to be ready to make the Sri Lanka squad for the T20 World Cup in February-March 2020, Dilhari was back in action at the ACC Emerging Team's Cup in October 2019, finishing as Sri Lanka's leading wicket-taker. A month and a half later, she got more game time in the South Asian Games Women's Cricket Competition, where Sri Lanka won silver.

Upon Chamari Athapaththu's insistence, Dilhari was selected in T20 World Cup squad. "I feel she is like me; in my little age [when I was young], I used to be like her - aggressive, wanting to do more, wanting to prove myself through my cricket," Athapaththu said then, describing Dilhari as one of "the most positive, free and energised cricketers" she had ever seen play for Sri Lanka.

An admirer of Nathan Lyon, Dilhari has continued to be a regular presence in Sri Lanka's squads. She was one of ESPNcricinfo's 20 picks for women cricketers expected to dominate the 2020s.
S Sudarshanan