Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara
කුමාර සංගක්කාර

Sangakkara in his final ODI in Sri Lanka
Personal information
Full name	Kumara Chokshanada Sangakkara
Born	(1977-10-27) 27 October 1977 (age 39) Matale, Sri Lanka
Nickname	Sanga
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Batting style	Left hand bat
Bowling style	Right arm off break
Role	Wicket-keeper, Batsman
Relations	Yehali Sangakkara (spouse)
International information
National side	Sri Lanka (2000–2015)
Test debut (cap 84)	20 July 2000 v South Africa
Last Test	20 August 2015 v India
ODI debut (cap 105)	5 July 2000 v Pakistan
Last ODI	18 March 2015 v South Africa
ODI shirt no.	11
T20I debut (cap 10)	15 June 2006 v England
Last T20I	6 April 2014 v India
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1997–present	Nondescripts
2016	Quetta Gladiators
2007	Warwickshire
2011–2012	Deccan Chargers
2013	Sunrisers Hyderabad
2014	Durham
2015–present	Surrey
2015–present	Hobart Hurricanes
2015–present	Dhaka Dynamites
2008-2010	Kings XI Punjab
2017-	Karachi Kings
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI T20I FC Matches 134 404 56 252 Runs scored 12,400 14,234 1382 19,673 Batting average 57.40 41.98 31.40 50.70 100s/50s 38/52 25/93 0/8 57/85 Top score 319 169 78 319 Balls bowled 84 – – 246 Wickets 0 – – 1 Bowling average  – – – 150.00 5 wickets in innings  – – – 0 10 wickets in match  – – – 0 Best bowling – – – 1/13 Catches/stumpings 182/20 402/99 25/20 366/33
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 17 April 2017

Kumar “Sanga" Chokshanada Sangakkara (Sinhalese: කුමාර සංගක්කාර; born 27 October 1977) is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and captain of the Sri Lankan national team. Widely regarded as one of the world's most influential cricketers, Sangakkara was rated as the Greatest ODI wicket keeper batsman of all time in a recent public poll. Sangakkara has forged many formidable partnerships with long time team mate and friend, Mahela Jayawardene and holds numerous batting records in the modern era across all formats of the game. Sangakkara scored 28,016 runs in international cricket across all formats in an career that spanned just 15 years.

A left-handed top-order batsman, he is also a record-breaking wicket-keeper, although he no longer kept wickets at the end of his Test career. Currently, he is the second-highest run-scorer in ODI cricket and the fifth-highest run scorer in Test cricket.

Sangakkara is described as one of the "most polished and prudent of batsmen" in cricket. He has dominated the number one spot in the ICC Test batting rankings between 2005 and 2015. On 12 August 2015, Sangakkara was placed at number 5 in the ICC Test rankings.

Sangakkara was a key member of the team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made the final of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20. He won the Man of the Match award in the final of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, where he helped the team win their first title.

He was the youngest person and the first active international player to deliver the MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, which was widely praised by the cricketing community for its outspoken nature.

In terms of a number of innings required, Sangakkara is the fastest batsman to reach 8,000, 9,000, 11,000 and 12,000 runs in Test cricket. He is also joint fastest to 10,000. He won the ICC Cricketer of the Year in 2012, Test Cricketer of the Year in 2012, and ODI Cricketer of the Year multiple times in 2011 and 2013. He has also won the LG People's Choice Award twice, in 2011 and 2012. Sangakkara has regularly featured in the World Test XI and World ODI XI, appearing six times and three times in them, respectively. He was selected as Leading Cricketer in the World in the 2015 edition of Wisden.