Some statistical data may seem small, but they pertain to a bowler who played internationally from 2008 to 2015. During this period, his play was very successful, but then he suddenly disappeared from the cricket field. His bowling style inspired awe: outwardly he appeared calm, but inwardly he was a warrior.
This player is also considered one who helped revive the use of the 'carromball' type of ball in modern cricket. The technique of this ball was later adopted by Ravichandran Ashwin from India and Mujib Ur Rahman from Afghanistan, but it was the Sri Lankan spinner, Ajanta Mendis, who brought this ball to fame. Next, we will talk about the carromball technique itself, but first, let's look at Ajanta's game.
Mendis's strength led to him being promoted directly from rifleman to lieutenant in the Sri Lankan army's artillery unit in 2008. Later, he became a lieutenant. Technically, Ajanta served as an armorer in the Sri Lankan artillery when he was given this rank. Mendis is currently 41 years old, and at that time, he was about 23 years old.
The question of why Ajanta received such a promotion finds its answer in his performance in the 2008 Asia Cup final against the Indian team. The match took place on July 6th in Karachi. Sri Lanka, batting first, scored 273 runs. The target set for the Indian team seemed easy, as Indian opener Virender Sehwag started aggressively. However, after this, Ajanta Mendis demonstrated incredible spin that completely demoralized the Indian team. In 8 overs, 1 without conceding a run and 13 runs conceded, he took 6 wickets, and the Indian team was bowled out for 173 runs. Thanks to this, Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup final by 100 runs, and Mendis's name became widely discussed.
It was this performance that attracted the attention of world cricket. Mendis held a record that no one has yet managed to break: he became the fastest player to take 50 wickets in ODI cricket, and this record remains intact. Mendis reached 50 wickets in 19 ODI matches.
He debuted in ODIs against the West Indies in April 2008, taking 3 wickets for 39 runs, but it was in the 2008 Asia Cup that Mendis gained fame. Thanks to his performances in the Asia Cup, he was invited in July 2008 for a match against India in a test match. Along with Mutaiya Muralitharan, he stunned the Indian batting order, allowing Sri Lanka to win 2-1. He took 26 wickets in three matches, including eight in his debut Test match. In this match, Sri Lanka defeated India by another innings and by 239 runs. In this match, he dismissed Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly.
At the age of 34, Mendis decided to retire from all formats of cricket in 2019. He was last seen in an ODI match against New Zealand in Christchurch in 2015.
Mendis possessed numerous variations that allowed him to spin the ball in both directions or make it skid. He proved extremely effective in T20 cricket. He holds the record for best performances in T20 Internationals: in the first T20 World Cup match in 2012 against Zimbabwe, he took 6 wickets for only 8 runs. He also performed brilliantly in the T20 World T20 Edition in 2009 (12 wickets in seven matches) and in 2012 (15 wickets in six matches), which helped Sri Lanka reach the final twice. He is the only bowler in T20Is to have taken six wickets twice; the second time (6 wickets for 16 runs) he did against Australia in 2011.
However, when Mendis began to be perceived as a batsman, his performance started to decline, and he found himself in the lower order of the famous Sri Lankan spinning team. Before retiring, he was troubled by injuries, after which he disappeared from the selectors' sight.
Nevertheless, his success in all formats allowed him to be included in the squad for the 2011 World Cup, where he took seven wickets in five games. He regularly played for Sri Lanka in white-ball formats until 2014, until a back injury impacted his career. He was not selected for the 2015 World Cup and was absent mid-year due to injury. He was then selected in an ODI against the West Indies in November of that year, where he took 4 wickets in three matches. In his last ODI against New Zealand, played a month later, he took no wickets, conceding 49 runs in Sri Lanka's 7-wicket defeat. Mendis also played in the IPL, but his performance was not memorable: only 8 wickets in 10 IPL matches.
Before saying goodbye to his international career, Mendis captained the police sports club in a local Tier B tournament in Sri Lanka, where he once again established himself as a batting all-rounder. There, he scored more than 50 runs four times in eight of his first-class matches. Ajanta, born on March 11, 1985, returned to the cricket field in 2022 and participated in the Legends League.
