Upul Chandana

One of Sri Lanka’s able wrist spinners, Upul Chandana is a former Sri Lankan cricketer whose career coincided with the legendary Muttiah Muralidharan. Although they operated differently, the former was seldom consistent. Though both these spinners were blessed with different abilities, Chandana lacked the consistency of his colleague. 

Chandana began his international career in the April of 1994, during an ODI against Australia. In the following year, he was duly dropped. It was in 1996 that his prowess as a leg-break bowler came to the forefront, during a triangular series that involved Sri Lanka, India and Australia. With figures of three for 38 and four for 35, both against Australia, he became the leading wicket-taker ahead of Muttiah Muralidharan and Glenn Mcgrath.

For the next five years, he never replicated the efforts that won him several accolades in his early cricketing years. Inconsistency at the international level saw him being dropped from the squad. Nonetheless, he was a regular in the limited-overs format, more so after the 2003 World Cup. In August 2004, against South Africa, he picked his first and only five-wicket haul in ODIs, thereby steering Sri Lanka to a 49-run victory against the Proteas.

Chandana played his penultimate game in the November of 2005 and returned to play his last fixture two years later in 2007, against Bangladesh, after which he announced his retirement. One can only wonder what his career could’ve been if it had not conceded with that of Muttiah Muralidharan. Nevertheless, his consistency in limited-overs cricket saw him feature in 147 ODIs in which he struck 151 wickets.

(As of April 2021)