Stats: Suranga Lakmal joins a rare list of captains in Test cricket

109 wickets in 46 Test matches at an average of 42.46. These are the bowling numbers of Suranga Lakmal, the latest player to lead Sri Lanka in Test cricket. Dinesh Chandimal bagged a one-Test ban for ball-tampering during the 2nd Test between Windies and Sri Lanka. This meant the vice-captain Lakmal got the chance to captain his country for the first time in his career during the ongoing Bridgetown Test.

Keeping his past record aside, Lakmal made most of the opportunity and led his side from the front in the first day/night Test in the Caribbean. He dismissed Devon Smith in the very first over of the game and sent back the other opener Kraigg Brathwaite in his 3rd over. The hosts lost five wickets for just 53 before Shane Dowrich (60*) and Jason Holder (33*) rescued them out of trouble with an unbeaten 77-run stand for the 6th wicket on day one.

Thus, Lakmal became first Sri Lankan captain to take a wicket on the very first over of the match also the first such skipper in the last 15 years. Interestingly, the right-arm pacer was also the first captain to bowl the first over of a Test match since Heath Streak in 2004.

The last captain to take a wicket in the first over of a Test was Pakistan’s Waqar Younis who did that against Australia in the 2002 Test series played in Sri Lanka and UAE. Waqar achieved the feat twice in that series of taking a wicket in the first over of a Test while leading the team.

Another former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan struck four times in the very first over of the game while Kapil Dev gave his team a break-through on three occasions in the first over while leading India. Lakmal is overall the 9th captain to take a wicket in the first over of a Test match but only the 3rd to do it on their captaincy debut.

Ray Lindwall bagged a wicket in the first over of the only Test match he led Australia. Pakistan’s Fazal Mahmood also began his Test captaincy with a wicket in the first over of the game.

(Stats as on June 23, 2018)