Karunaratne - A Frank And Underrated Opener

He is softspoken and frank, which is also happens to his first name - Frank Dimuth Madushanka Karunaratne, the former Test Captain of Sri Lanka who recently hung up his boots on his 100th Test match, a milestone he dreamed to achieve before retiring as one of Sri Lanka's most prolific openers!

Young Dimuth with his mother

Born on a day like this in 1988, he started his schoolboy cricket journey at Asoka Vidyalaya, before moving to Darley Road where he was a part of a strong Josephian Cricket team by the time he left College, where he would join his old schoolmates in the ODI (2011) and Test (2012) formats.

The St. Joseph's College team with a few familiar faces

A Mainstay in Test Cricket

Did you know that since Dimuth's Test debut in 2012, only David Warner has scored more runs as an opening batter in Test Cricket? He is also the highest run scorer as an opener for Sri Lanka with 7129 Test runs, including 16 centuries.

As a summary of his silent Test Career, he's the 4th all time highest run scorer in the long format for Sri Lanka, and the captain of the team for two World Test Championship cycles from 2019 to 2023. In fact, he's the only Asian captain to win a Test series in South Africa, one of the memorable wins that came down in Durban (2019) where Kusal Janith Perera scored 153*.

Carrying the Bat and Team

He also holds the rare distinction of being the only Sri Lankan to 'carry the bat' across two formats, where an opener remains not out after the team has been all out. It's not pretty to watch all your teammates walk back to the pavilion, but it happened to Dimuth twice, in both Tests and ODI's!

The first instance was in the 1st Test against South Africa in 2018 (Galle) where his 158* contributed to a winning cause, while the next year, it happened against New Zealand in the ODI series (in New Zealand) where he got stranded on 52*. Although he is a Test specialist, he has one century in ODI's.

He has also played in 3 World Cups, but has not been as successful as he was in the longer format and has been captain of the ODI team as well. His Test Captaincy saw 12 wins and defeats each, for 30 matches until it was handed over to Dhananjaya De Silva.

Consistency and the ICC Team of the Year

If there was one thing he was good at doing at his peak, was scoring runs and he did it well enough to earn him a place in the ICC team of the year three times (2018, 2021 and 2023) and for almost a third of his career, he remained in the Top 10 of the ICC batting rankings.

Another underrated fact about him was that he was part of the Yorkshire Cricket team for the County Cricket Championship in 2022, for a brief stint but among the very few Test Captains from Sri Lanka.

Dimuth finishing his career with his 100th Test Cap

Although he was not able to continue the good run he had with the bat towards the latter part of his career, he drew the curtains on his 100th Test match, as the 7th Sri Lankan to achieve this milestone on February this year against Australia.

Here's to wishing Dimuth on his 37th birthday today!