Downdegedara Asela Sampath Gunaratne, commonly known as Asela Gunaratne (born 8 January 1986) is a professional

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er, who plays all forms of the game. Gunaratne is an aggressive right-handed batsman who occasionally bowls part-time medium pace. He is currently serving in the

Sri Lanka Army ta, இலங்கை இராணுவம் , image = File:Sri Lanka Army Logo.png , image_size = 180px , caption = Emblem of the Sri Lanka Army , start_date ...

as a

Warrant officer Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the mos ...

attached to the 6th Field Regiment,

Sri Lanka Artillery The Sri Lanka Artillery (SLA) is the artillery arm of the Sri Lanka Army. It is made up of ten regular regiments and two volunteer regiments. The SLA is headquartered at Panagoda Cantonment, Panagoda. The emblem of the SLA is modeled after that ...

. He is a past pupil of Sri Rahula College, Kandy. In November 2017, he won four awards at

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Cricket for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) on 30 June 1975 as a national spo ...

's annual awards ceremony, including two awards for best

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

Domestic and T20 franchise career

In February 2017, he was bought by the

Mumbai Indians Mumbai Indians are a franchise cricket team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, that competes in the Indian Premier League and is the most successful team of the tournament with 5 titles. Founded in 2008, the team is owned by India's biggest conglo ...

team for the

2017 Indian Premier League The 2017 season of the Indian Premier League, also known as IPL 10 and branded as Vivo IPL 2017, was the tenth edition of the IPL, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the BCCI in 2007. The tournament featured the eight teams ...

for 30

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s. In March 2018, he was named in Kandy's squad for the

2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament The 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament was a first-class cricket tournament, that was played in Sri Lanka during March and April 2018. It took place following the conclusion of the 2017–18 Premier League Tournament and featured four t ...

. The following month, he was also named in Kandy's squad for the

2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament The 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament was a List A cricket tournament that was played in Sri Lanka between 2 May and 10 June 2018, following the conclusion of the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. Four teams took part in the co ...

. In August 2018, he was named in Galle's squad the

2018 SLC T20 League The 2018 SLC T20 League was a domestic Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in Sri Lanka, between 21 August and 2 September 2018. Four teams took part in the tournament: Colombo, Dambulla, Galle and Kandy. The Rangiri Dambulla International ...

. In October 2018, he was named in the squad for the

Comilla Victorians Comilla Victorians ( bn, কুমিল্লা ভিক্টোরিয়ান্স) is a Bangladeshi professional men's cricket team which competes in the Bangladesh Premier League, a Twenty20 cricket league. The team is based in Cum ...

team, following the draft for the

2018–19 Bangladesh Premier League The 2018–19 BPL season, also known as BPL 6 or UCB BPL 2019 Powered by TVS (for sponsorship reasons), was the sixth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the top level professional Twenty20 cricket franchise league in Bangladesh. T ...

. In March 2019, he was named in Kandy's squad for the

2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament The 2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament was a List A cricket tournament that was played in Sri Lanka between 4 and 11 April 2019. Four teams took part in the competition: Colombo, Dambulla, Galle and Kandy, with Galle being the defending ch ...

. In October 2020, he was drafted by the

Kandy Tuskers Kandy Falcons, formerly known as Kandy Tuskers and Kandy Warriors, are a Sri Lankan franchise professional Twenty20 cricket team that competes in the Lanka Premier League (LPL), representing the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka which was founded in 2020 ...

for the inaugural edition of the

Lanka Premier League The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; , ) is a professional cricket league in Sri Lanka in Twenty20 format contested every year by teams representing Sri Lankan cities from 2020. The league was founded by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in 201 ...

. In August 2021, he was named in the SLC Reds team for the

2021 SLC Invitational T20 League The 2021 SLC Invitational T20 League was a Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place in Sri Lanka from 12 to 24 August 2021. All the matches were played at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, in Kandy, and were used as preparation for ...

tournament. In November 2021, he was selected to play for the

Kandy Warriors Kandy Falcons, formerly known as Kandy Tuskers and Kandy Warriors, are a Sri Lankan franchise professional Twenty20 cricket team that competes in the Lanka Premier League (LPL), representing the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka which was founded in 202 ...

following the players' draft for the

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International career

He was selected in the

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) squad for Sri Lanka's tour to India in February 2016. He made his T20I debut on 14 February 2016, scoring four runs. Sri Lanka lost the match by 9 wickets. He made his

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debut for Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe on 29 October 2016. He scored a fifty in the first innings of the first Test and scored his maiden Test century in the second match of the same tour. He was selected in Sri Lanka's

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) team for Tri-Series in Zimbabwe, with

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being the third team. He made his ODI debut in the first match of the tri-series, against Zimbabwe and took 3 wickets. In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by

ahead of the 2018–19 season. In December 2018, he was named in Sri Lanka team for the

2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup The 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the third edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Karachi, Pakistan and Colombo, Sri Lanka. Eight teams participated in the tournament including five under-23 age level teams of Test nations and ...

South Africa 2017

Gunaratne scored his maiden ODI century on 11 February 2017 against South Africa at

Centurion A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...

. His score stands as the highest ODI score at number six against South Africa. However, Sri Lanka lost the match by 88 runs. Gunaratne was the first Sri Lankan to score an ODI hundred when batting at number six and also holds the record for the highest ODI score for Sri Lanka when batting at number 6 (114

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

Australia 2017

On 17 February 2017, against Australia, Gunaratne scored his maiden T20I fifty off 37 balls, helping the team to win the match by 5 wickets. In the next T20I game he scored an unbeaten 84 runs off 46 balls to guide Sri Lanka to the series victory. He was adjudged man of the match in both games for his match-winning performances. Gunaratne set the record for the highest T20I score batting at number five or lower for Sri Lanka, with 84

. Gunaratne scored 37 runs off last 12 deliveries of the match to seal the game for Sri Lanka and they won their third consecutive T20I series win against Australia in Australia. After the third T20I, Gunaratne won the award for the player of the series.

Zimbabwe 2017

In one-off Test against Zimbabwe in July 2017, Gunaratne scored a match-winning unbeaten 80 to seal the match in a record chase. He along with

Niroshan Dickwella Dickwella Patabendige Dilantha Niroshan Dickwella, known as Niroshan Dickwella (born 23 June 1993), is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays all formats of the game for Sri Lanka. A left-hand batsman, he also plays as a wicket-keeper of ...

made a 121-run stand partnership for the sixth wicket. Sri Lanka won the match by 4 wickets by successfully chasing a total of 388, which was the highest successful chase by Sri Lanka in Tests and also as the highest successful run-chase in Asia. Gunaratne played the whole five-days with an injury, however his match winning innings gave him his maiden Test man of the match award.

India 2017

During the first match against India at Galle, Gunaratne was injured with a fracture in his left thumb. The injury occurred when he dived to take a catch of

Shikhar Dhawan Shikhar Dhawan (born 5 December 1985) is an Indian cricketer. Being a left-handed opening batsman and occasional captain of the India national cricket team, he captains Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League and plays for Delhi in first-class ...

, while fielding at second slip. With that, he was taken to the hospital, where doctors advised him to quit playing for six to eight weeks following reconstructive surgery in Colombo. Therefore, Sri Lanka played the match with 10 players and finally lost the match by 304 runs. Finally, Gunaratne was dropped from the whole India tour.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunaratne, Asela 1986 births Asian Games medalists in cricket Cricketers at the 2014 Asian Games Kurunegala Warriors cricketers Living people People from Kandy Sri Lankan cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Twenty20 International cricketers Sri Lanka Army Sports Club cricketers Sri Lanka Artillery soldiers Asian Games gold medalists for Sri Lanka Mumbai Indians cricketers Dhaka Dominators cricketers Comilla Victorians cricketers Lahore Qalandars cricketers Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club cricketers Kandy Falcons cricketers