There’s no doubt that Lahiru Thirimanne is one of the best talents in the country and should have made steady progress, but with change of selection panels, selections policies too have been pushed out of the door.

When Sri Lanka toured England in 2011, he made a solid hundred in a warm up game in Chelmsford against Essex. With Tillekeratne Dilshan injured, he was picked to make his debut at Rose Bowl and although he didn’t produce massive scores, showed good temperament and it looked as if the long search for an opener was over. But failures against England in two home Tests and change of selection committee saw him being branded a middle order batsman and was out of the side.

He was a surprise omission for the Tests in Australia and even after Kumar Sangakkara was injured the preferred choice to replace the star batsman was an all-rounder. It’s believed the Sri Lankan team asked for Jeewan Mendis, who was already in Australia playing Big Bash League, but resistance form Colombo meant that Thirimanne was flown in. There was a dramatic turnaround as he landed in Australia on Monday and played the Test on Thursday after just one net session.

Sri Lanka’s batsmen have struggled in Australia this summer, but Thirmanne had no issues and he was set to become the ninth Sri Lankan to score a Test hundred in Australia when he threw it all away becoming the first Sri Lankan to be dismissed in 90s here in Australia.

But his positive outlook in tough conditions against a good bowling unit must have given him loads of confidence and he certainly is a player to be banked on looking to the future.

The selectors call, when he was discarded, that he wasn’t an opening batsman would have been justified had Sri Lanka possessed any solid opener. But our openers were struggling and the selectors forget one thing, which is, except for Sidath Wettimuny, none of our other openers with exceptional records, weren’t openers at all at the start. Roshan Mahanama, Sanath Jayasuriya, Marvan Atapattu and Tillekeratne Dilshan are cases in point.

During his knock of 91, Thirmanne played the short ball well, Sri Lanka’s Achilles heel during the disastrous Melbourne Test where they crashed to an innings and 201 run defeat inside three days. Against off-spinner Nathan Lyon he was positive using his feet. In the end it was an ambitious drive against Lyon that brought about his downfall.

Thirmanne has lot of fans. Former batting great Aravinda de Silva, who was the under-19 coach, was one person to push his talent. Another former captain Anura Tennekoon too thought highly of him.

With several senior players nearing the end of their impressive careers, players like Thirimanne should be provided with opportunities to ensure a smooth transition.

In many ways, the Sydney Test was an important one for Sri Lanka. There were three young Sri Lankans with big future; Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne were involved in the Test. The tour of Australia will certainly make them better players.

by Rex Clementine
Source: The Island (Sri Lanka)