Arjuna Ranatunga’s International career in numbers

Arjuna Ranatunga will remain in the hearts of the Sri Lanka fans as the man who led their cricket team to greatest triumph during the 1996 Cricket World Cup. Not only for his captaincy, Ranatunga was well known for his batting in the limited overs where he succeeded with his ability of scoring shots which dominated his inability of running between the wickets. He represented the nation from 1982 to 2000 and led them for more than a decade.

On occasion of Arjuna Ranatunga’s 54th birthday, here we look at all the numbers from his International career.

1 – Arjuna Ranatunga is the only player to feature in country’s first Test and 100th Test match. Sri Lanka’s 100th Test match turned out to be Ranatunga’s last which was his 93rd match.

18y 75d – He is Sri Lanka’s 2nd youngest player to feature in an ODI game. He later became the captain of ODI side at the age of 24 years 333 days. However, Dinesh Chandimal broke the record when he led his country at the age of 23 years and 244 days.

18y 78d – Ranatunga is the 2nd youngest Sri Lankan to feature in a Test cricket. He made his Test captaincy debut at the age of 26 years and 7 days. He was then their youngest Test captain only to be surpassed by Angelo Mathews (25y 279d) and PA de Silva (25y 309d).

56 – Number of Test matches in which Ranatunga led Sri Lanka. He is the only player to lead Sri Lanka in over 50 Tests and overall his 56 games are the joint 9th most Tests as a captain for anyone.

193 – He led Sri Lanka in 193 ODI matches which are the 4th most number of ODIs by any player as a captain. Ranatunga’s 89 ODI wins are the most for Sri Lanka under any captain. He led his team in 95 losses which are the 2nd behind Stephen Fleming’s 106.

249 – Ranatunga featured in 249 International games in his captaincy career which are the 6th most number of appearances and the most for a Sri Lankan player as captain across three formats. Ranatunga led Lankans to 101 victories which are the most for any captain. Mahela Jayawardene also has 101 International wins but three came while leading Asia XI.

4675 – Runs Arjuna Ranatunga made while batting at No.5 in ODI cricket. These are the most runs scored by any player at this position. Till date, Steve Waugh (4117) is the only other player to score more than 4000 ODI runs at No.5.

5608 – He aggregated 5608 runs in ODI cricket as a captain. These are the 4th most runs made by any player while leading the side in ODI format. He is one of the seven players and the only Sri Lankan to score 5000 ODI runs as a skipper.

8726 – Runs Ranatunga scored in International cricket as a captain. These are the 6th most for any player as a captain and the most by a Sri Lankan skipper in International cricket. Mahela Jayawardene made 7673 runs across all formats while leading Sri Lanka and Asia XI.