Sri Lanka is one of the best cricket teams in the last 30 years. Till the mid-1990s, the island nation wasn’t considered a force to reckon with in cricket. Everything changed in 1996, as the Ranatunga-led men won the all-important ODI World Cup, when very few expected them to. It changed Sri Lankan cricket forever. In the 2000s, Sri Lanka was one of the best teams in the world and had its best team ever. During this period, the world saw some of the greatest cricket players from Sri Lanka. Most of the players in the below list belong to the period when Sri Lanka was at its peak in cricket.
1. Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas
One of the best bowling pairs in the history of cricket, the duo was the best bowling pair in the history of Sri Lankan cricket. Throughout the 2000s, the duo picked wickets for fun, when both the greats were at the peak of their career. The duo bowled together in 95 Tests and claimed 895 wickets at a rate of 9.42 wickets per match. Muralitharan claimed 586 of them and Vaas dismissed 309 batters in the process. In ODIs, the duo picked a whopping 708 wickets in 252 matches at a rate of 2.81 wickets per match, which is the most for any pair in the history of ODIs.
2. Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene
It’s the best batting duo Sri Lanka ever got across formats. The duo has the most runs together for a batting pair from Sri Lanka in both Tests and ODIs. The two great batters were responsible for Sri Lanka being a great team in the 2000s and early 2010s. In Tests, the duo scored 6554 runs in 120 innings together at an average of 56.50, including 19 hundred partnerships. In ODIs, the duo scored 5992 runs in 151 innings at an average of 41.61, including 15 hundred partnerships. The duo has the second most runs for a batting pair in both Tests and ODIs.
3. Aravinda De Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga
This is more of a captain-player pair than a player-player pair. While the two batters were very good with the bat in ODIs, they were not that good in Tests. But the legacy of the duo lies in their partnership together in ODIs – Ranatunga the captain and De Silva the batter. Both were capable of bowling too. De Silva won the 1996 World Cup semifinal and final with his All-round performances, aided well by Ranatunga the finisher.