Aravinda de Silva Biography, Age, Height, Weight, Family, Wiki & More

Aravinda De Silva was arguably the best batsman, Sri Lanka has ever produced. He was good against both spin as well as pace. His heroics at the domestic level earned him a national call-up at the young age of 18 when Sri Lanka toured England in the year 1984. He made his ODI debut the very same year. 

 

He quickly rose through ranks and became one of the biggest match winners of the team by scoring runs at will. His first test ton came on his 20th Birthday against Pakistan in Faisalabad. Though he was often accused of getting out playing rash shots and hence was given the name Mad Max. He was handed Sri Lanka’s captaincy during the early 1990s and captained his side during the 1992 World Cup. His tenure as a captain was very brief and in the 6 Test that he captained for Sri Lanka, he couldn’t manage to win a single Test for India.

 

He put his captaincy woes behind and after a great outing with the Kent County in 1995, he came with a mission in the 1996 World Cup. He scored 448 runs with an average of nearly 90 and also took 4 wickets. He performed exceptionally well in semi-finals as well as finals and made sure that Sri Lanka bring home the World Cup. He received Man of the Match award in both the matches. He was adjourned Wisden Cricketer of the year in the year 1996. He finally called it curtains on his career in 2002 but not before scoring over 9000 runs in ODIs and over 6000 runs in Tests. Post retirement, he released his autobiography titled Aravinda: My Autobiography. He then served as a chief selector of the Sri Lankan team and after the 2011 World Cup loss, he stepped down from his post.