Stats: Suranga Lakmal joins an elite list of captains in Test history

Suranga Lakmal was given the responsibilities to lead the Sri Lankan Test team after their captain Dinesh Chandimal involved in a ball-tampering fiasco in Windies. The pacer’s Test record wasn’t something a specialist bowler’s numbers look like. However, Lakmal led his team to a victory in the 3rd Test in Windies taking some crucial wickets and helped his team to level the series. He took a wicket in the very first over of the game and ended up becoming the first Asian skipper to win a Test in Bridgetown.

In the first of the 2-match Test series against South Africa, Lakmal was part of crucial partnerships in the lower order scoring 10 and 33 runs respectively. He bowled only 4.3 overs in the game and took 3/21 as the Lankans registered their first win over South Africa in nearly seven years. It was evident that Lakmal wasn’t going to get enough opportunities to bowl in the second Test given the way the visitors played the spinners in the first Test.

Winning the toss and declaration in the 2nd innings were the only major things Lakmal did in the Test as he didn’t bowl in the first innings and bagged a duck in the first innings. He finally got a chance to bowl on the 4th day morning thanks to a century 5th wicket partnership between Theunis de Bruyn and Temba Bavuma. Lakmal went wicketless in the two overs he bowled and didn’t get to contribute through catches as well in the game. However, Sri Lanka won the match by 199 runs bringing an end to their 12-year wait for a series win over South Africa.

Thus, Suranga Lakmal became only 12th captain to win a Test match despite not scoring a run, bagging a wicket and taking a catch or affecting a stumping. Among the previous 11 players, Windies’ Jackie Grant and Steve Waugh didn’t turn up to bat even once as they declared their innings before they batted. Both of them went wicketless in the few overs they bowled. Hansie Cronje to bowled a bit in the 2000 Cape Town without taking a wicket after bagging a duck in South Africa’s only innings in that game.

Captains to win a Test match without a run, a wicket, a catch and a stumping:

(Stats as on July 23, 2018)