Sri Lanka (Commonwealth) _ The International Cricket Council announced on Monday that Kamindu Mendis, a young batting star from Sri Lanka, had won the title of ICC Men’s Player of the Month for September.
During the month, Mendis participated in four Test matches, hitting 451 runs at an average of 90.20. He helped his team win a consolation match at The Oval in England before contributing to an incredible series victory against New Zealand in Sri Lanka. During this streak, he has also scored two centuries.
The first player to win the ICC Men’s Player of the Month award twice in 2024 is a burgeoning Test star from Sri Lanka. The slick left-hander added to the honor he had already secured in March of this year when he defeated Australia’s Travis Head and Sri Lanka colleague Prabath Jayasuriya to win the monthly award, according to an ICC statement.
Mendis is already putting in a lot of effort to accomplish even more in his cricket career, and he was overjoyed to win the award for the second time this year.
I feel that all of the effort I put into becoming the player I am today is beginning to pay off and that I am getting recognized consistently on the international scene, therefore I am honored to have been selected as the ICC Men’s Player of the Month once more, the ICC quoted him as saying.
This award provides me more motivation to keep up my outstanding work on the cricket field and aim for greater success, which will help my team win games and bring honor to our nation and joy to our supporters, he continued.
Mendis made history in September when he became the first player in men’s cricket history to reach fifty in each of his first eight Test matches. In just eight Test matches, he matched Don Bradman’s achievement of hitting the 1,000-run milestone in 13 innings, making him the fastest hitter to do so in 75 years.
In Sri Lanka’s massive first-innings total of 602/5 declared in the second Test match against New Zealand, he scored his highest score of the month, a commanding 182* that helped pave the way for a resounding victory. His 114 in the opening innings of the first Test match of that series, however, was perhaps more remarkable.
When Mendis entered the batting order, his team was in danger at 88/3, and Angelo Mathews had already retired injured. The game, which Sri Lanka won by a margin of only 63 runs, saw no other hitter on either side reach triple figures.
Kamindu has amassed 1,004 runs at an average of 91.27 in eight Test matches thus far, with five hundreds and four fifties in 13 innings. 182* is his highest score. Mendis made history in September by becoming the only player in men’s cricket history to reach fifty in each of his first eight Test matches.
During that month, he surpassed Don Bradman’s record of 13 innings to become the fastest batter in 75 years to score 1000 Test runs, completing the feat in just eight Tests. In Sri Lanka’s massive first-innings total of 602/5 declared in the second Test match against New Zealand, he scored his highest score of the month, a commanding 182* that helped pave the way for a resounding victory.
His 114 in the opening innings of the first Test match of that series, however, was perhaps more remarkable. When Mendis entered the batting order, his team was in danger at 88/3, and Angelo Mathews had already retired injured. The game, which Sri Lanka won by a margin of only 63 runs, saw no other hitter on either side reach triple figures.
In December of that year, Sri Lanka selected him for their 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup squad. In February 2019, Sri Lanka’s One Day International (ODI) team included him for their series against South Africa. On March 10, 2019, he played his first ODI for Sri Lanka against South Africa.
He was selected as Sri Lanka’s vice-captain for the 2019 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup in Bangladesh in November 2019. He was announced later that month as Sri Lanka’s vice-captain for the 2019 South Asian Games men’s cricket competition. After losing to Bangladesh by seven wickets in the final, the Sri Lankan squad took home the silver medal.
