Thilan Thusara Samaraweera is a Sri Lankan cricketer, born September 22, 1976 in Colombo. Samaraweera plays international cricket for Sri Lanka and is in the side primarily for his solid right-handed batting but is also a capable Off spinner. Samaraweera started his career as an offspinner who could bat a bit and couldn't find a way into the side due to the emergence of Muttiah Muralitharan. He managed a handful of ODI games in 1998 but didn't play Test cricket until August 2001. Having worked on his batting considerably he got due reward by scoring century on debut against a strong Indian side helping Sri Lanka to win the series 2-1. He continued to star with the bat by scoring another two centuries in his next five Tests, all on his home ground, the SSC in Colombo. This stunning start to international cricket cemented his spot in the middle order, a spot which had holes to fill with the retirements of Aravinda de Silva and Hashan Tillakaratne. His off-spin has been rarely called upon by his captain but when he comes on he has earned a reputation as a partnership breaker. After a poor Test series in England in which he failed to reach double figures in any of his four innings, he was dropped from the side. He was made captain of Sri Lanka A before earning a recall for the first Test against Australia in Brisbane. He scored 13 and 20 and was promptly dropped when Kumar Sangakkara returned to the side for the second game in Hobart. This was followed by his non-inclusion in the squad to play England in the first Test in Kandy.[1] Samaraweera was included in the Sri Lankan team to play the Test series in Pakistan in February - March 2009. This series was conducted after the Indian team withdrew from a scheduled series in Pakistan, following the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Samaraweera started off the series in superb form, hitting a double century in the first Test. He then followed it up with another double century in the second Test in Lahore. Samaraweera, along with five other Sri Lankan cricketers, were injured in the March 3, 2009 attack on the bus that carried the Sri Lankan cricketers to the Gaddafi Stadium. He is hospitalised with a thigh injury.[2] Six policemen that guarded the bus and two civilians were killed in the attack. An innings-by-innings breakdown of Samaraweera's Test match batting career, showing runs scored (red bars) and the average of the last ten innings (blue line).
