Rangana Herath, the 5 foot 6 inches tall tidy left-arm orthodox spinner who hails from Kurunegala has stamped his authority as the successor of the great off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in the Sri Lanka Test team.
When the greatest spinner of the cricket ball retired in 2010 with 800 wickets under his name, many pundits predicted Sri Lanka will have no suitable match-winner to replace him in the team. Now 4 years later, Sri Lanka relies on Herath’s unrelenting accuracy and his ability to subtly vary his pace and flight with a dangerous carrom-ball up his sleeve.
Herath created history when he wrapped-up Sri Lanka’s farewell gift to Mahela by capturing 14 Pakistani wickets. His extraordinary spell of 9 for 127 in the 1st innings against Pakistan in Colombo was the first ‘test’ nine-for by any left-arm bowler. Cricket-crazy fans screamed and applauded him as ‘Hera’, the King in the pack of cards as he walked up to collect the Man of the Series award after capturing 23 wickets in the series which is also another record as the highest wickets by a bowler in a 2-match series and he became the fourth-fastest spinner to 250 Test wickets, in his 57th match. The only slow bowlers to pass this feat were Murali, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble.
Rangana started his career in 1999 under Murali’s shadows as a supporting bowler and played around 24 Tests matches and 78 wickets in a span of 10 years when Murali was the go-to bowler in the Sri Lankan set-up. Herath’s great temperament to bowl on a testing line and length untiringly for long spells has made him a force to reckon with in overseas conditions as well. During Sri Lanka’s tour to South Africa in 2011-12, Herath’s match bag of 9 wickets for 128 runs aided Sri Lanka to their first ever Test win in South Africa under TM Dilshan’s captaincy.
Herath has been the chief destroyer of Pakistan for a number of years as he has captured 88 wickets against Sri Lanka’s friendly rival out of his 260 scalps. Herath has taken 17 five-wicket hauls in his last 33 Test matches since 2011 and he has taken 182 wickets during this period, which is post-Muralitharan era.
Rangana has excelled in the limited-overs formats as well as he was an integral part of Sri Lanka’s 2014 ICC World T20 triumph. Rangana cast a web around the New Zealanders in a group stage match which was a must-win affair as his crafty spell of bowling captured 5 wickets for 3 runs to defend 119 runs posted by his batsmen.
Looking at Sri Lanka’s future with Rangana Herath being the main strike bowler, skipper Angelo Mathews will have to use his trump card effectively and caringly as he is now 36-years old and as Angelo clearly pointed out on being one of the top 3 Test nations under his realm Rangana will have to play a major role in Sri Lanka’s Tests successes in the future.
Herath’s capability of bowling with the brand-new red cherry in Tests has made many batsmen scratch their heads “I love bowling with the new ball as I can get a good grip on the ball and it provides more bounce which is essential to tackle the batsman.” Rangana said on another aspect of his bowling recently.
Herath is currently ranked third in the ICC Test bowlers list with a career-best rating of 851 which is only below two faster-bowlers in Dale Steyn and Ryan Harris. Does that mean Rangana is the World best spinner at the moment? He certainly is, taking into account his match-winning performances for his nation.
Mystery has ruled spin bowling in recent times but orthodoxy still works, Rangana is the perfect definition.
