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Follow UsA captain doesn’t only lead by telling other players what to do, but by showing them how it’s done, and Kusal Mendis hasn’t done that for Sri Lanka in the ongoing World Cup. The 28-year-old, who started the showpiece event with a bang, has become a walking wicket since taking over the captaincy from injured Dasun Shanaka after the second game.
The captaincy doesn’t seem to be suiting Mendis and that has affected his form with the bat. The right-hander has scores of 19, 1, 39, 11, 11 and 9 in Sri Lanka’s last six encounters, averaging just 15 while operating at a mediocre strike rate of 68.2. In the first two matches, Mendis smoked 198 runs at a strike rate of 166.4.
What’s more, Mendis was eating spin for breakfast before the World Cup but has got out to them four times in the last six innings. Against Bangladesh on Monday (November 6), he scored 19 off 30 before playing a nothing shot off Shakib Al Hasan’s bowling and getting caught at long-on. It was a poor shot, something he has been blamed for too many times in the past.
The surface in Delhi was superb for batting, however, it was only Charith Asalanka (105-ball 108) who played a big knock for Sri Lanka. They were bowled out for 279. Najmul Hossain Shanto (90) and Shakib (65-ball 82) then put on 169 runs for the third wicket and helped Bangladesh win by three wickets, with close to nine overs to spare.
Sri Lanka’s NRR has now come down to -1.160. They are sitting at No. 8 on the points table and with only one game to go in the competition, there is a high possibility that Sri Lanka couldn’t even qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Sri Lanka have been horrible in all facets of the game, and the lack of runs from Mendis has hurt them big time.
The way Mendis started the World Cup, it looked like he would set the event on fire. Sri Lanka conceded 428 runs in their very first game against South Africa but Mendis refused to throw in the towel. He came out all guns blazing and whacked four fours and eight sixes in his 42-ball 76 before falling to Kagiso Rabada in the 13th over.
Sri Lanka fell short by 102 runs, however, Mendis surely made his presence felt. Then came Pakistan in Hyderabad and Mendis once again went mad. Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf all felt his wrath, with him smashing 122 off 77 deliveries. Just in two games, he had 18 fours and 14 sixes, but since then he has only managed eight fours and one maximum in six innings.
That’s not it. Just in the powerplay of the first two games, Mendis slammed 95 runs at a strike rate of 169.64 without being dismissed even once. He only has 90 runs in the last six matches and that tells you how terrible he has been with the bat. His strike rate in the powerplay has been 44.44 in these games.
The burden of captaincy has surely got the better of Mendis, who has looked way more defensive at the start of his innings. It took him seven deliveries to get off the mark against Afghanistan, 10 against India, and 13 against Bangladesh on Monday. He hasn’t been at his aggressive best since being asked to lead the side.
What’s been worse is how he has tackled spin in this World Cup. Mendis had an average of 67.88 and a strike rate of 88.6 against spin from the start of 2022 to September 2023. Amongst batters who faced at least 500 deliveries of spin in this period, his average was the fourth-best after Shubman Gill (103.83), Sikandar Raza (100.8) and Rahmat Shah (99).
Mendis had an average of 26.12 against pace in the aforementioned time phase, but that has gone up to 52.5 in this World Cup. Meanwhile, his average against spin in this tournament is just 19.5. Thrice, he has gotten out to spin while playing a slog sweep. Amongst batters who have batted in the top three in this WC, Mendis’ average against spin is the third-worst after Temba Bavuma (14.33) and Steven Smith (17.67).
He didn’t get out to spin in the first two games but the quality of spin he faced was questionable. Mendis came up against Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed and we all know how Pakistan’s spin unit has fared in this tournament. But things haven’t been easy for him against the likes of Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Adam Zampa and Shakib Al Hasan.
The opponents have figured out that if you cut out his boundary options early in his innings, it’s very easy to control Mendis and he will eventually throw his wicket away, like he has done on numerous occasions in the past.
Mendis bats between Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama who have been Sri Lanka’s best batters in this World Cup. All he has to do is bat with them, however, the 28-year-old hasn’t been able to deliver. This has probably been his story in international cricket. He has all the talent and shots in the book but has never been consistent enough with the bat. An ODI average of 32.43 is not something to be proud of.
“High time Kusal Mendis starts scoring runs. You can’t say he is young, he has played more than 200 matches at the international level. That’s a lot of experience and it is high time that he starts scoring runs. He is a huge talent, hopefully, he starts realising his talent soon,” former Sri Lankan batter Thilan Samaraweera told Cricket.com in a recent interview.
You can understand where he is coming from. Mendis was the second-highest run-getter (270 runs @ 45) in the last edition of the Asia Cup and everyone thought he finally cracked the ODI code, but it seems like he hasn’t, and the burden of leading a side like Sri Lanka has also not helped him.
In this WC, Mendis has been like those politicians after the elections. They’ll perform initially to show that they are working towards their promises, but eventually nothing happens, and all the hope you had is turned into a crushing despair. Just the word you could use to describe Mendis's batting in the last six games.
