With goals reset, Kusal Mendis finally finds his niche

"The prince", "next great Sri Lankan batter", "boy wonder" are some descriptions that have been assigned to Kusal Mendis. "Spoilt", "useless", "soft", "touchy" are some others. Although at home he is a polarising cricketer, outside Sri Lanka, he is a pretty inoffensive presence - one of those South Asian wicketkeepers who doesn't feel especially comfortable sledging in English, so there are no viral clips.

And yet, few Sri Lankan cricketers have got into as many arguments with fans at the edge of the boundary as Mendis. When Sri Lanka were on one of their huge losing streaks in the late 2010s or early 2020s, Mendis was one of the guys to blame. Not taking sufficient responsibility was one accusation. Caring too much about social-media likes was another. People would say things like this to his face, and Mendis would respond just as quickly.

But he is 30 now, and has, in his own way, carved out a place. He was a specialist batter for Sri Lanka when he started out, but had kept wicket at the age-group levels. Long after it became clear he was not about to be the saviour of Sri Lankan batting, choices were reassessed, expectations were toned down, and goals have been reset.

He is now one of the few players that appears across formats for Sri Lanka. What is key to this deal is that he must keep wicket, and do it well. At international level, Mendis has been crushing it.

Even just in this Asia Cup, he's made his presence felt behind the stumps. Against Hong Kong - the opponents that tested Sri Lanka most in the group stage - he stuck pads out to stop extras, scrambled stumpings off bad ricochets, and took a high catch. The entire vibe of this team is that now, you find ways to make yourself useful. Nine years after he appeared in international cricket, perhaps Mendis has found his pocket.

He is, as Afghanistan found out, brutal on errors of length, a master of varieties of the sweep, and an excellent manipulator in the middle overs. If there is a ball that can possibly be hit square of the wicket, Mendis tends to oblige. He also tends to far prefer spin. By necessity, he has now become a white-ball opener. But he's always looked most comfortable when playing the sweep as often as possible.

"We knew today they'd bowl a lot of spin," Mendis said after the Afghanistan game. "What me and Kusal Perera talked about was to bat normally until the 12th over. But almost automatically, we were able to make eight or nine runs per over. That made things easier for us.

"Even when Charith Asalanka came to bat, we were waiting for those seam-bowling overs, so we can score some runs off that."

Although Asalanka faced zero seam-bowling deliveries through the course of his stay, Mendis' theory held true - Afghanistan's seamers are easier to get away with the older ball than their spinners. It was Kamindu Mendis, in the end, who helped Mendis take Fazalhaq Farooqi down. By that stage, there had been 12 successive overs of spin, through which Mendis' sweeps, cuts, swivel-pulls and nudges had helped Sri Lanka stay in touch with the required rate.

Then a 15-run over off Farooqi sealed the result. Mendis hit the winning runs, deservedly, crashing Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman through midwicket.

Where once greatness was expected, now only meaningful contributions to the team are required. Mendis has had to reassess his role several times in his career. But he is now Sri Lanka's wicketkeeper-batter across formats. And he is playing match-winning innings, while also impressing with the gloves.

Sometimes all it takes is finding your niche.