Facing Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun pales into insignificance by comparison to live bullets being fired at a bus for centurion Paranavitana
Facing Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun pales into insignificance by comparison to live bullets being fired at a bus foru00a0centurion Paranavitana
Maiden Test centuries do not come more deserving than this one from Sri Lanka's opening batsman Tharanga Paranavitana against India.
It is understandable as well, why there will be celebrations in the team's dressing room and the left-hander's home, as they watched his studious undefeated innings of 110 on the first day of the opening Test of the series here yesterday.
Here is a victim and a survivor of the Lahore terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team bus in March last year and is performing what the Australians call a gutsy street fighter's innings.u00a0 He enabled Sri Lanka to reach a first innings total of 256 for two before storm rains lashed the venue minutes after bad light halted play at the end of the 68th over.
That day!
Paranavitana was slumped in his bus seat after he was hit in the chest by a shrapnel during the assault by a mob of fundamentalists. At the time, his teammates didn't realise until the bus arrived at the Gaddafi Stadium that he had been among the wounded and treated for a chest injury.
While his Test career was far from over, there would be those who believed in his talent and that he was always in with a chance to continue his career. Not that it has been easy. After all, there is admission of experiencing occasional cold sweats at night, which means facing fast bowlers as Ishant Sharma and his medium pace new-ball partner Abhimanyu Mithun pales almost into insignificance by comparison to live bullets being fired at a bus.
Prodigy
A pupil of St Mary's College, Kegalle near Kandy in the centre of the emerald island, and another of the group of outstation players in the side, Paranavitana was enticed to join the Colombo club Saracens whose coach Mahesh Weerasinghe had noticed his talent when he scored a triple century. His B Section Premier League performance then encouraged a former Ceylon batsman of note, Anura Tennekoon to invite the youngster to join the prestigous Sinhalese Sports Club.
"He is someone who at first glance you know is going to become a Test batsman," Tennekoon said when he first eased Paranavitana into the national 'A' team squad. "It had taken a while, but he went to show the selectors what he can achieve."
This was a comment made after the Sri Lanka A team tour of South Africa followed by a highly successful domestic season.
Tennekoon is now the manager of the Sri Lanka Test and ODI squads and has been also advising the younger player to adopt a more positive approach.
It was evident on Day One of this first Test against India. He anchored the innings with patience and skill, indicating he would not surrender his wicket. It is the type of performance Sri Lanka needed. Although he batted in the company of his captain, Kumar Sangakkara, who scored an attacking 103 in a partnership of 181, the tall upright batsman handled the bowling with style and did not allow the Indian bowlers to trouble him as he fashioned some handsome drives and eased his way through whatever India's bowling attack dished out to unsettle him.
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