Duvindu Tillekaratne has been a silent worker in the Sri Lanka cricket arena. The son of the former Sri Lanka captain and present National women’s team head coach Hashan Tillekaratne, the spin bowler could very much be on the way to a maiden Test cap.
Tillekaratne junior is a left arm wrist spinner and has good potential to go forward according to his past and present coaches. He is the present leading leg spinner at domestic level having first started his cricket at S. Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia and then crossed over to Trinity College in Kandy.
Leaving school he started his First Class career at Badureliya SC at the 2016-17 Premier League but the turning point of his career began at the Burgher Recreation Club (BRC) where he is currently playing.
He was the leading wicket taker for BRC in the 2018-19 Premier league cricket tournament with 34 wickets in nine matches and for the first time was named in the Sri Lanka squad for the men’s cricket tournament at the 2019 South Asian Games in Kathmandu where Sri Lanka won the silver medal.
Tillekaratne then struck it big time at the 2019-20 Premier League tournament as the leading wicket taker with 61 wickets in just nine matches.
Unlike several other players, Tillekaratne’s main focus is the represent Sri Lanka in Test cricket. He came close to it for the 2019 Bangladesh Test series knocking on the door but unfortunately he suffered an injury and the nod went to Praveen Jayawickrama who took a match bag of 11 wickets in his debut Test at Pallekele.
Subsequently he had a stint at Orrell Cricket Club in Liverpool, England in the 2021 season where he excelled and was among the wickets.
In the current Major clubs limited overs tournament he took 5 for 26 against Ragama CC and 4 for 30 against Galle CC and last Friday had 3 for 42 against CCC to prove his consistency as a leg spinner.
He has already played 32 First Class matches taking132 wickets with best figures of 8 for 147 and the tally includes nine five-wicket hauls and the Sunday Observer learns that he is very much in the eyes of the Selection Committee with the Pakistan series to follow the Australia series.