Kusal Perera

Perera played regularly for Sri Lanka's Under-19 sides from 2007 and joined Colts Cricket Club in 2009. Playing for Colts against Saracens at Havelock Park in Colombo, he hit 336 off 275 balls, with 29 fours and 14 sixes. That innings remains the only triple hundred in the competition's history. Strong domestic form then pushed him towards the national team.

He made his ODI debut in Adelaide in January 2013 as a replacement for the injured Kumar Sangakkara. Batting at number four, he scored 14 not out and helped Thirimanne, who made a century, finish the chase. In the T20I series that followed, Sri Lanka promoted him to open. Rajasthan Royals signed him for the 2013 Indian T20 League, although he sat out most of that season. He opened alongside Tillakaratne Dilshan, missed the original 2015 World Cup squad and was called in midway through the event when Dimuth Karunaratne was injured. He scored a brisk 24 from the middle order in one game and failed as an opener in the other before Sri Lanka lost in the quarter-finals.

After a productive 2014-15 ODI season, he played his first Test against India in July-August 2015. He made fifties in both innings, becoming only the second Sri Lankan to do that on Test debut. Later in 2015 his 'A' and 'B' samples both tested positive for 19-Norandrostenedione, and Sri Lanka Cricket withdrew him from upcoming tours. With the board supporting him, he took polygraph tests and was cleared, but he had already missed close to seven months of cricket.

Since his return his form has been uneven, but his potential has kept him in the side across formats more often than not. He holds the record for the highest strike rate, 272, in an innings of more than 50 runs, a mark that took him past Jayasuriya.