Young Thilan Samaraweera may not have set the stadia on fire with his performances in ODIs so far, but he has shown enough promise in his emerging career, for an outcry to be raised when he did not get picked to play in the recently concluded Coca Cola tri-series.

No great flighter of the ball, he is accurate enough in one-dayers to command the respect of top batsmen, as he did on his ODI debut at the Sydney Cricket Ground, taking 3 for 34 in a tidy spell. A good prospect for the future, he can also bat usefully.