Full Name

Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslow Mendis

Born

March 11, 1985, Moratuwa

Age

39y 8d

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Offbreak

Playing Role

Bowler

Ajantha Mendis reintroduced mystery to spin in the era of video analysts and super-slow-motion replays. Much like the original mystery spinner, Jack Iverson, and the other practitioner of the "Iversons", John Gleeson, Mendis stunned the world with his finger-flicked legbreaks. His Iversons came with a new name, the "carrom ball", taken from the way the striker is flicked in the popular board game in the subcontinent.

His first, most famous, and most comprehensive victims were the most prolific middle order of his time: Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. Following closely on the heels of a six-for in the Asia Cup final against India's ODI side, Mendis made a sensational Test debut. He took eight wickets in his first Test and 26 in his first series, two more than Alec Bedser's record for a three-match debut series.

The early success was built as much on his variations - offbreaks, topspinners, carrom balls, googlies, ones that did nothing - as it was on accuracy and Muttiah Muralitharan's company. As the mystery wore, though, much like with Iverson and Gleeson, the world caught up with him, and Mendis failed to live up to the early promise. By the time Murali retired, Mendis was not ready to take over as the leading Sri Lankan spinner, a vast change from when he could have emerged as the leading spinner in the world.

Mendis continues to be an effective spinner in shorter formats where batsmen don't have much time to adjust. He holds the record for the best figures in a T20I innings, but fails to find a regular place in the Sri Lankan side for the longer formats. The rest of his career will be an exercise in trying to rediscover success, this time not through mystery but by being a really good spinner.
Sidharth Monga

Ajantha Mendis Career Stats

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
Tests193147302434706/9910/20934.773.0867.5541
ODIs8784415433241526/136/1321.864.8027.3730
T20Is3939885952666/86/814.426.4513.4320
FC811241323171473077/3711/10523.283.2443.021183
List A163155741355862877/237/2319.464.5225.81450
T20s129128276732301706/86/819.007.0016.2520

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s4s6sCtSt
Tests191962137816.3845546.810125120
ODIs87421918821*8.1726371.4800162150
T20Is398584*2.661747.05001060
FC811127188910117.99272769.271719357250
List A163882987071*14.74104283.49027122360
T20s129491721427*6.6824686.9900167290
Balapuwaduge Ajantha Winslow Mendis

Explore Statsguru Analysis

Test
ODI
T20I

Recent Matches of Ajantha Mendis

Photos of Ajantha Mendis

Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis walk out to bat
Ajantha Mendis and Suranga Lakmal celebrate Sri Lanka's narrow victory over West Indies
Ajantha Mendis is elated after hitting the winning runs for Sri Lanka
Ajantha Mendis' stumps were dislodged by Chris Woakes
Ajantha Mendis chats with Angelo Mathews
Ajantha Mendis and Upul Tharanga take a breather during training