Dimuth Karunaratne, Sri-Lanka Test captain, is one of the finest Sri-Lankan test cricketers of all time
Playing for Sri Lanka, Dimuth has played some crucial innings for his team and has impressed cricket lovers across the world
So here, we have listed down 20 interesting facts about Dimuth Karunaratne
1) On 21 April 1988, Dimuth Karunaratne was born in the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka
2) Dimuth studied at St Joseph’s College Colombo, the same college which has produced cricketers like Angelo Mathews and Chaminda Vaas.
3) A record-breaking batsman for the school’s cricket team, Karunaratne represented Sri Lanka in U-19 and A squads
4) On 9 July 2009, Dimuth Karunaratne made his ODI debut for Sri Lanka against England at Manchester
On 13 July 2009, opening the batting for Sri Lanka, Karunaratne scored his maiden ODI fifty against Ireland at Edinburgh
5) On 17 November 2012, Karunaratne made his international test debut for Sri Lanka against New Zealand in Galle
In the second innings of this test match, Dimuth Karunaratne scored his maiden Test half-century to help Sri Lanka win by 10 wickets
6) On 28 December 2014, Dimuth Karunaratne made his maiden Test century against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch
He played a brilliant 152 run knock in this match from 363 balls but New Zealand managed to beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets
7) In October 2015, Dimuth Karunaratne scored 186 runs against West Indies at Galle.
In this match, Dimuth and Dinesh Chandimal added 238 for the 3rd wicket, the highest test match partnership for the 3rd wicket at Galle
In this match, Sri Lanka easily beat West Indies by an innings and 5 runs.
8) In November 2016, during the Zimbabwe Test series, Karunaratne scored 280 runs at an average of 70 and managed to win the ‘Player of the series’ award
9) In August 2017, during the second Test against India in Colombo, Dimuth Karunaratne got his maiden Test wicket by dismissing Cheteshwar Pujara
Dimuth scored his 5th Test century in the second innings of this Test match
10) On 6 October 2017, Sri Lanka played their first day-night Test match against Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium
In this match, Dimuth Karunaratne played a superb knock of 196 runs and became the first Sri Lankan cricketer to score a 50, 100, and 150 in an innings of a day-night Test match
11) In 2017, Karunaratne scored 1000 Test runs and became the seventh Sri Lankan to score 1000 Test runs in a calendar year.
12) On 12 July 2018, Dimuth Karunaratne scored a superb century in his 50th test match and became the 3rd Sri Lankan batsman to score a hundred in their 50th Test
He also carried his bat throughout the innings and became the fourth Sri Lankan batsman to carry his bat in Test matches
13) In 2019, Karunaratne was named in the 2018 World Test XI by the ICC and ESPNCricinfo
14) On 13 February 2019, Dimuth Karunaratne became the 17th Sri Lankan in the 2017-18 Test series
He captained Sri Lanka to a 2-0 series victory that series and became the first Asian team to win a Test series in South Africa
15) On 1 June 2019, against New Zealand, Karunaratne became the 2nd cricketer to carry his bat in a World Cup match.
16) In April 2021, Dimuth Karunaratne scored his maiden double century in Test cricket against Bangladesh at Pallekele
He scored 244 runs in the match, the 10th highest individual score by a Sri Lankan cricketer in test matches
This performance won him the ‘Player of the match’ award
17) On 29 April 2021, in the first Test against Bangladesh Dimuth Karunaratne also became the 10th Sri Lankan cricketer to score 5000 runs in Test cricket
18) In 2021, Karunaratne scored 902 runs in 13 innings, including four centuries and three fifties.
Due to his brilliant performances, ICC included him in ICC World Test XI in 2021
19) On 14 March 2022, he scored 107 runs from 174 balls at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru
Doing so, Dimuth Karunaratne became only the second visiting opener after Mark Taylor to score a fourth-innings Test century in India
20) He is only the third Sri Lankan captain to score a Test century in India.
Due to his batting heroics, Dimuth reached his career-best ranking of No.5 in ICC test batting rankings.