(UDHAYAM, COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka opener Upul Tharanga says a consistent place in the national team over the past eight months has empowered his batting, after being picked inconsistently over the past few years.
Tharanga’s third Test century in Galle comes in the wake of an impressive One-Day-International (ODI) ton in South Africa last month, and a good tour of Zimbabwe last year.
In Angelo Mathews’ absence, Tharanga was also named ODI captain for the South Africa series, and T20 captain for the series in Australia, when only a year ago, he had struggled to find a place in any of Sri Lanka’s sides.
Tharanga said “In the last two or three years, I was in and out of the side – I’d play one series and then miss another one. When that happens as a player, it’s hard to keep that confidence. In the last eight months I played continuously, and that’s been key to my mental state. The captaincy in the limited-overs matches has also helped. That showed me that the selectors had some sort of trust in me.”
Tharanga said he had especially been disheartened by the seemingly arbitrary nature of his omissions from the Test side – recounting the occasion he had been dropped from the squad after top-scoring in the previous Test, in 2014.
Though his overall average is 34.02, he has scored his runs at 40.90 since the start of 2014.
