10 Interesting facts about Thisara Perera

Thisara Perera is Sri Lanka’s best all-rounder at the moment. A hard hitting batsman and a wicket taking seamer bowler, Perera primarily plays the role of a batting all-rounder in the team. He made his debut as a 20-year-old rookie after performing extraordinarily throughout his age group levels and didn’t take much long to cement his place in the team as a key impact player.

1.Born on:

Narangoda Liyanaarachchilage Thisara Chirantha Perera was born on April 3, 1989 in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo.

2. Early life:

Thisara Perera was educated in the St. Anthony’s College, Wattala. He later attended the prestigious St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, which has produced Sri Lankan cricketers such as Chaminda Vaas, Angelo Mathews and Dimuth Karunaratne. Perera played for his school teams as a young boy and represented Sri Lanka at various youth levels.

3. U19 Cricket:

Thisara Perera was selected for the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup and played alongside future Sri Lank internationals Dinesh Chandimal, Dilshan Munaweera, Kusal Perera and Lahiru Thirimanne.

4. First Class debut

In November 2008, he made his first-class debut for the Colts Cricket Club.

5. International Debut:

Perera made his international debut at the age of 20 on December 2009 during the ODI series against India. He made his debut in the 4th ODI of the series at Kolkata.

6. Test cap:

Later, Perera made his Test debut against England in the first Test at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff in 2011.

7. Unique Feat:

On 12th February 2016, Perera took a hattrick against India in the 2nd T20I at Ranchi. This made him the only bowler after Brett Lee to take hat-tricks in both ODI & T20I. In the 2nd ODI of 2012 series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, took a 6 wicket haul in the match – his career best which included a hat-trick.

8. Nickname:

Perera is nicknamed “panda” by his Brisbane Heats team mate. He owes this name to skipper George Bailey during his stint at BBL with the Brisbane Heat. Apart from being called Panda, he is commonly known as TP.

9. Indian Premier League:

Thisara Perera joined the IPl in the 2010 when he was bought by Chennai Super Kings for 50,000 USD in the auctions. HE switched over to Kochi Tuskers Kerala in 2011 who signed hi for a bigger amount of 80, 000 USD. A couple of season later in 2014, he was purchased by Kings XI Punjab for a whopping 270,000 USD. He is currently roped in by new IPL franchise Rising Pune SuperGiants for the 2016 season.

10. Big Bash League:

Thisara Perera plays for the Brisbane Heats Australia’s premier T20 league – The Big Bash.