For me - Dinesh Chandimal is a fighter and the most underrated customer in world cricket at present. The guy reminds me of Larry Gomes of West Indies in the late 70s and 80s, when his productive contributions were often overshadowed by the big guns around him and when the big guns had a bad day at the office, Gomes would always show up and get things going.
World cricket has always left such fighters in the cold because the focus always remained on the big names and with the shift in power in world cricket - even trashes from the streets clear the distance and become the future prodigy in the circus shows - but people like Chandimal does not even come to any cricketing discussion -- the street trashes do because they feature in the circus shows.
Also, Chandimal does not belong to the Big 3 elites or South Africa and for which, to hog the limelight, he has to break down the sweat 500% more than one of the elite players of the Big 3.
How would you judge his defiant resistance against Pakistan at Galle in the first Test in both the innings? How would you rate his bold knock the Australians a couple of weeks ago? How would you rate his inspiring knock against Bangladesh in Bangladesh? Do you remember his nine-hour 155 against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi in 2017? Do you remember his twin fifties on debut against South Africa in 2011 which was a memorable tour? What about that 162 against India in 2015?
Nope...you don't remember those.
No, you don't!
You hardly care Chandimal, the man whose travel has been bumpy.
His rough road has included spectacularly failed brushes with the captaincy.
He was the shorter-format captain at the age of 23 but was dumped in the middle of the World T20 that Sri Lanka went on to win.
His Test reign was beset by problems such as illness that kept him out of part of the 3-0 whitewash at the hands of India at home, a ball-tampering saga that saw him suspended for several matches before eventually he was not just sacked, but also dropped from the side, when Dimuth Karunaratne took over and immediately led Sri Lanka to their biggest Test series win in many years, in South Africa.
Although leadership has almost uniformly brought him sorrow, Chandimal agreed to be stand-in captain for this game in Karunaratne's absence.
And, like a team man - he has always given his all for the betterment of the team.
Neither Chandimal exhibits arrogance to hit the headlines nor does he try to establish himself as a revolutionist in the team - rather - he has always tried to be a Sri Lankan and give the Island nation hope during such a testing time.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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