The Sri Lankan cricket team used to be a phenomenal force to be reckoned with in international cricket. They had all types of players in their arsenal who were capable of taking down any opposition. Sri Lanka won their first ODI World Cup by beating the mighty Aussies in the 1996 World Cup under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga.
Sri Lanka also won the T20 World Cup by beating Team India in the 2014 edition. As far as the batting unit is concerned, the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayawardene and Tillkaratne Dilshan delivered the goods ever so well in the long term for Sri Lanka.
After the greats retired from the sport, the Sri Lankan cricket team are building the foundation right from scratch again and have been trying their maximum best to be a competitive side. They defeated Pakistan in the previous edition of the Asia Cup 2022 final to lift their sixth title.
Maintaining a batting average is not that easy for batters as they need to keep dictating the terms time and time again such that they can sign off their cricketing career on a high. In this article, let’s take a look at the two Sri Lankans with the highest batting average after 500 games.
1. Kumar Sangakkara
Kumar Sangakkara is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He is the second-leading run-scorer in international cricket and the leading run-scorer for Sri Lanka in international cricket. He maintained a batting average of 44.73 after 500 international games.
It is also the highest batting average by any batsman in the history of Sri Lankan cricket. Sangakkara scored 12400 runs in Tests at an average of 57.4 whereas he scored 13434 runs at an average of 42 and scored 1382 runs at an average of 31.4 in T20Is.
Also Read:
- 5 Indians with Highest Test Batting Average at No.6 or below (Minimum 2000 Runs)
- 3 Players who took least innings to score 2000 runs in World Test Championship
2. Mahela Jayawardene
Mahela Jayawardene has been one of the pillars of the Sri Lankan batting line-up. Sri Lanka’s batting great comes second on the list with a batting average of 40.21 after 500 games in international cricket.
Jayawardene scored 12650 runs in ODIs at an average of 33.4 whereas he scored 11814 runs in Tests at an average of 49.8. He scored 1493 runs in T20Is at an average of 31.8
