Samarawickrama - Doing it with style, doing it with substance

Sadeera Samarawickrama was the future.

He made his debut as a 22-year-old for Sri Lanka and he didn't just pass the eye test. He shattered it. That cover drive he plays isn't a cricket shot. It's a love song. It's just that sometimes he seems to fall under its spell too.

Mere weeks after that bright start against Pakistan, Samarawickrama was dropped from the Test team altogether because he kept making the same mistake over and over and over again, seemingly caught up in the idea that his talent outweighed the need for any kind of restraint. He had a hand in five out of his six dismissals on a tour of India in 2017. The highest score he made was 33. The longest he lasted was 61 balls. And he was left to think about that for six years.

"I learned a lot about what's required at the top level," Samarawickrama would say when he finally returned to the Test side in April 2023. Since that comeback hundred against Ireland in Colombo, he has played in 26 of Sri Lanka's 32 games across formats and is their highest run-getter at the men's ODI World Cup right now.

Sadeera Samarawickrama is the future.

He has found his purpose as a 28-year-old for Sri Lanka and he is still shattering that eye test.

"Big shot! Great shot! Brilliant shot! Wow!" crooned Ramiz Raja from the commentary box as Samarawickrama danced down the track to Mohammad Nawaz's left-arm spin and hoisted a ball that was maybe two stumps or so outside off over cover for six. The off side has always been his happy place. He once hit as many boundaries as the entire England team did in an Under-19 World Cup match and the cover region got extra-special attention.

Samarawickrama has reprised that strength as he's moved up levels, but there was a sense he just never stuck around to do himself any justice. Until his breakthrough century earlier this year, only four of his 24 innings across formats hit the 35-ball mark. Since his 104 not out against Ireland, that count has risen to 13 in 24 innings.

As much as batters are revered for looking good, for the audacity to walk into what is in some ways a field of battle by casually chewing a piece of gum, for the serenity in their bent-knee cover drive, for the authority of their front-foot pull shot, and the depravity of turning a perfectly good ball on top of off stump into a six over the keeper's head, Viv Richards, Kumar Sangakkara, Ricky Ponting and Jos Buttler would have all gotten pretty old pretty quick if they hadn't also been churning out runs by the truckload.

At this level of sport, style is an augment. Substance is where it's at. And Samarawickrama has started to get it, which is just as well because, on Thursday, he will face a whole team that embodies it. India were the ultimate test for him in 2017 and they will be again. But this time he seems better equipped.

For one, he is the highest run-scorer (213), with the second-highest boundary count (23), against spin in the World Cup.

For another, Samarawickrama's entire career arc has made sure he just can't rest on the fact that he is a gorgeous timer of the ball. He has to work with his gifts. Sometimes that might mean unleashing them and sometimes that might mean restraining them. He's also been conscious of adding to them.

In ODIs, until the start of 2023, the leg side seemed to be as much a weakness for Samarawickrama as the off side a strength. The shot options that he took weren't particularly efficient, causing his downfall three times for fairly meagre returns - 65 runs. That's an average of 21.66.

Samarawickrama addressed this shortcoming, and this year - which includes the 12 matches in the World Cup and the Asia Cup where he has faced high-quality oppositions - he has collected 417 runs at the cost of four dismissals on the leg side. That's an average of 104.25.

A lot of his good work came together against Bangladesh last month when he made 93 at a strike rate of 129 in a game where only one other specialist batter managed to go at a run a ball, before being dismissed for 18. That is peak Samarawickrama. And Sri Lanka could really use him as they go into a rematch of the 2011 final.