When Mr Wayne turned bat-man for Kusal Mendis

Travel can be a hassle. No (worthwhile) trip is ever complete without face-palming about something you forgot. Kusal Mendis took it to a little bit of an extreme when he sort of forgot all his equipment in the rush to get from point A to point B.

The Sri Lanka top-order batter, who plays some of the smoothest checked drives you have ever seen, was at PSL 2025 last week and had to leave all of a sudden when cross-border tensions erupted between India and Pakistan. In his haste to return home, Mendis had to leave his kit bag behind and every effort he made to get it back just wouldn't come off.

unfortunately when I Had to leave @OfficialPSL suddenly I had to leave my kitbag behind,Tried everything to get it down to join @ipl but nothing worked,when this amazing Sri Lankan Mr. Wayne who is living in Pakistan, flew all the way to colombo to bring my kitbag amazing human. pic.twitter.com/fMU7WzD8gf

— Kusal Mendis (@KusalMendis13) May 17, 2025

Then, just as he was starting to lose faith in humanity, a kindred soul, whose surname should make it clear he had little choice in the matter, helped ferry his stuff from Pakistan to Colombo. Mendis is scheduled to link up with Gujarat Titans as a replacement for England's Jos Buttler, who will be leaving for national duty ahead of the IPL 2025 playoffs. And now Mendis has everything he needs to make his IPL debut.

But for a moment just imagine if his gear had remained stuck. Locker-room culture is rife with stories about camaraderie and sharing. There have been many players who have lent bats and gloves and jerseys as a stop-gap measure so imagine if Mendis walked out to play his first game of the tournament decked out not just with his team-mates' best wishes but also their bat, their pads, their gloves, although asking for their abdomen guards might have made things just a tiny bit awkward. Feels like an opportunity (to go viral) missed.