In this article, we will discuss On This Day Controversial Sri Lankan cricketer Danushka Gunathilaka was born in 1991. The Sri Lankan left-handed batter Danushka Gunathilaka has turned 33 today. He has gone through some massive ups and downs on the cricket field. Some off-the-field controversies have majorly impacted his cricket career.
Danushka Gunathilaka made his international debut in 2015 when he was given an opportunity to play his first One-Day international for Sri Lanka, against West Indies at Colombo. The left-hander was impressive during the early stages of his international career which also earned him a place in other formats as well. Gunathilaka made his T20I debut a couple of months later in January 2016 against New Zealand on an away tour. He scored 46 runs on his T20I debut with a brilliant strike rate of 158.62. In 2017, he was included in the Test squad for the first time. The top-order batter went on to play his maiden Test against India at Galle.
Controversy and inconsistency
The Controversy and inconsistency have plagued Danushka Gunathilaka’s international career. He has a lot of potential and he has shown the same on various occasions but what fans would expect from him is consistency, which he lacks. The left-hander has represented Sri Lanka in all three formats of the game but has not been able to cement his place in any of them.
In 8 Test matches, the 33-year-old has only 299 runs to his name at a miserable average of 18.68. Whereas, in ODI cricket he has faired much better but still not the output that was expected of him. He has scored 1601 runs in ODIs at an average of 35.57. This average once again drops when T20I stats come up. In 46 T20Is he has amassed 741 runs at 16.46.
Recently he had to miss out on action due to a rape controversy in Australia. Fortunately, he has been acquitted of those charges and the Sri Lankan board has also lifted the ban. Danushka Gunathilaka would be hoping to make a strong comeback after a tragic phase in his career.