World Cup's the (toughest) stage for accidental captain Kusal Mendis

The earliest memory Kusal Mendis has of watching cricket is the 2003 men's World Cup. As an eight-year-old, he had heard tales of the magic Aravinda de Silva weaved with the bat. Aravinda was well past his prime by then, but he had done enough to fuel Kusal's burning desire to emulate him.

A few months short of his 18th birthday, Kusal won the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award. The recognition that came along with it helped him meet his boyhood hero, who is believed to have told him he should aspire to be the captain one day.

When Kusal burst onto the scene at the Under-19 World Cup in 2014, he was earmarked for big things including captaincy. It has taken nearly a decade for Kusal to get that job, but it has come under circumstances he wouldn't have envisaged.

As such, international cricket can be a hard place to learn on the fly and Kusal perhaps had valid reasons for not wanting the job in the lead-up to the 2023 World Cup. Far from a sustainer of good form, he had only slowly been emerging from that frustrating 'one step forward, two steps back' pattern that has been a constant in his seven-year international career.

But amid an ordinary start to a campaign many were cautiously optimistic about, largely because of the conditions, Kusal has been thrust into the role. Dasun Shanaka, an admirable leader who had backers for his style of rallying a team in doldrums together, had been ruled out for the rest of the tournament with a quadriceps injury.

As such, Shanaka's batting had tailed off so alarmingly that even a late surge against South Africa in chase of 429 merely seemed to limit damage than offer hope of him returning to his ferocious ball-striking ways. That he was a reluctant bowler didn't help.

So, two losses in - the one against Pakistan deflating them, one where they failed to defend 345 - there were rumblings of a potential change. As it turned out, Shanaka's injury may have saved the selectors from a tough call. It's under this backdrop that Kusal led Sri Lanka for the first time last week, against Australia in Lucknow.

It is an understatement to say he has had to hit the ground running. It is not quite a dreamy scenario. These are difficult circumstances that will need Kusal to not just manage his own form and expectations around his batting, but also figure out plans and work around all the other external challenges that come with the captaincy.

His spontaneous response at his first press conference after captaincy on what he expects from the team was a giveaway of how quickly things have unfurled. "I hope the bowlers know their roles," Kusal had said when asked about formulating specific plans. He wasn't feigning ignorance. He had barely had a few days to settle into the job, forget about easing into a role or building a team with the players he'd seen or backed.

It has been a week since that game. Sri Lanka have since gone on to scrap a win against Netherlands and find themselves in a logjam for points in the middle. On Thursday, they play England, who are equally desperate for two points. It is only bound to get tougher and Kusal knows there's only so much wriggle room. If he wants, Kusal has plenty of sounding boards in the dressing room, like Dimuth Karunaratne or Angelo Mathews. But in the heat of the battle, he will have to be his own man.

On Tuesday during Sri Lanka's first training session in Bengaluru under lights, Kusal was largely by himself, focused on his own idiosyncrasies - like his shadow swing, playing an imaginative forward defence, ducking and weaving bouncers, playing a straight drive. In his own little bubble, or the 'zone' as they say, until he was tapped by the team manager.

Then he walked across to observe proceedings from a little close, joining head coach Chris Silverwood to watch Mathews go through the motions. Mathews, of course, was Sri Lanka's captain when Kusal debuted as a precociously talented batter in 2015. How the wheels had turned now. Here he was assessing Mathews from the eyes of a leader, not the boy-wonder who could barely mumble a few words to him.

That small moment encapsulated Kusal's challenges. Of someone keen to work on himself in bringing out his best to now having to look beyond just his own goals for the team's sake. There are five league games left, and each one a must-win for Sri Lanka. There are bowlers to manage, plans to formulate with coaches, senior players to hand-hold, handling media and the scrutiny that comes with the job.

It helps that there's warmth and mutual admiration among the leaders within the group. For someone as senior as Mathews to swallow his ego, and be part of the group as traveling reserve tells you of his keenness to contribute. For him to sit with Kusal and ease him into a role he is still getting used to - he's captained at the Lanka Premier League, but not at any other level of senior cricket prior to this - must help.

"He has evolved so much over the last five-six years," Mathews said when asked about his assessment of Sri Lanka's current captain. "And now he's showing his maturity playing fearless cricket and leading from the front. And yes, I mean, playing under him, I've played under so many different captains and they've also played under me, so, it's a cycle.

"We all get into that cycle and then we come in, we go out and then the next generation comes in. So, playing under Kusal, where he started when I was the captain, it gives me pleasure because he's come a long way and I've seen him grow as a person and also as a batsman over the years which is very fantastic to see."

There is striking simplicity to Kusal's see-ball-hit-ball approach as a batter. Captaincy may not be so simple. But the key for Kusal will be in how he manages to channel his batting without allowing the rigours of the job to affect him. It's easier to do so perhaps in a bilateral series. But with the stakes high, the next two weeks could define his growth trajectory in a role he has no option but to grow into on the toughest stage.