Star Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who sits in No. 1 position in the ICC Test bowler’s ranking, took to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (September 9) to reserve massive praise for Sri Lanka’s opener Pathum Nissanka. Nissanka was on fire for the islanders in the third Test against England at the Oval and scored an unbeaten century on the fourth day to help the Dhananjaya de Silva-led side win the match by 8 wickets.
Nissanka remained unbeaten on 127 runs from 124 balls to help Sri Lanka chase down the target of 219 runs in 40.3 overs for the loss of two wickets.
Impressed by Nissanka’s batting, Ashwin called him one of the best batters from Sri Lanka in the recent past.
“Pathum Nissanka is easily one of the best batters to have come out of Sri Lanka in the recent past and he has delivered once again. Quality 4 innings tonne,” Ashwin tweeted.
During his stay at the crease in the fourth inning of the match, 26-year-old Nissanka hammered 13 fours and two sixes. He added 111 runs for the third wicket with Angelo Matthews in the first session of Day 4’s play after the visitors lost Kusal Mendis (39) early on Monday.
Nissanka has been in red-hot form in 2024, and in 23 matches played so far across formats, he has amassed a total of 1135 runs. Before his heroics at the Oval, the right-handed batter created history on February 9, 2024, by becoming the first Sri Lankan to score a double century in ODI cricket.
He remained unbeaten on 210 runs from 139 balls in the match played against Afghanistan in Pallekele. His total of 210 runs is the joint fifth highest score in ODI cricket history. Apart from him, Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman and India’s Ishan Kishan have also scored 210 runs each in an ODI match.
The overall record of scoring most runs in an ODI match is in the name of Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who scored 264 runs from 173 balls against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 13, 2014.
