Veteran Sri Lanka spinner Rangana Herath will bring down curtains on his illustrious career after the upcoming first Test against England at Galle.
Sri Lanka are all set to bid goodbye to yet another stalwart in the form of Rangana Herath who is the most-successful left-arm bowler in Test history.
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Well, Herath could not have asked for a better venue to bid adieu to the game. Galle was the very stadium where his journey in international cricket began. Herath made his Test debut at the same venue in 1999. Moreover, he needs only one more wicket to join Muttiah Muralitharan in having taken 100 wickets at the ground.
Not only that, Herath had also revived his career at the same ground after falling down the pecking order. At 21, his 10-wicket haul at Galle against Pakistan in 2009 brought his career back on track. Prior to that haul, he was playing league cricket in England before receiving a surprise call up.
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Herath is second on Sri Lanka’s list of leading wicket-takers – behind Muttiah Muralitharan, who has 800 wickets. Among currently active bowlers, he has the third best tally – behind James Anderson [564] and Stuart Broad [433]. He will also have a chance to go up to the seventh spot in the list of leading Test wicket takers. So far, he has picked up 430 Test wickets.
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The left-arm spinner has been Sri Lanka’s bowling mainstay since Muralitharan’s retirement. In eight years since Muralitharan’s retirement, Herath has played in 70 of the 81 Tests that Sri Lanka have played. In those games, he has picked 359 wickets at 25.98.
Herath’s retirement will bring an end to one of the most beautiful journeys in the game. A career that rarely showed sparks of brilliance in the early stage will end in a remarkable manner. Herath is the last active Test cricketer to have made his debut in the 1990s.
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