Best Sri Lankan Test Opening Batsmen Featured

Top 5 Sri Lankan Opening Batsmen in Tests

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All Test Ratings on the website are from 01/01/1950 onwards (Know Why). Most of our ratings are dynamic, and as new matches are played, the rating of earlier batsmen may change if current batsmen set new benchmarks. Brief explanation of the ratings is given before each section (Detailed Explanation). Here are the Top 5 Sri Lankan opening batsmen in Test Cricket since 1950.

*Note: All Test Ratings are updated till 2025-02-15

CONTENTS
1. THE CRITERIA
2. QUALIFICATION
3. PRIMARY CRITERIA
3.1. PROLIFIC
3.2. CONSISTENT
3.2.1. Against All Teams
3.2.2. Against Top Teams
3.3. BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL
3.4. ATTACKING
3.5. PRIMARY RATING
4. CONDITIONS CRITERIA
4.1. HOME/AWAY
4.1.1. At Home
4.1.2. Away From Home
4.2. FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS
4.2.1. Familiar Conditions Rating
4.2.1.1. Asians In Asia
4.2.2. Unfamiliar Conditions Rating
4.2.2.1. Asians Outside Asia
4.3. CONDITIONS RATING
5. SECONDARY CRITERIA
5.1. TOP FORM AT HOME
5.2. TOP FORM AWAY
5.3. DIFFICULT RUNS
5.4. IMPACT INNINGS
5.5. SECONDARY RATING
6. OVERALL RATING
7. TOP TEAMS
7.1. Top Teams In Asia
7.2. Top Teams Outside Asia
Nations Filter

This rating filters the OVERALL Rating to show players only from Sri Lanka.

  • The Rating of the players from Sri Lanka remains the same as in the original OVERALL Rating.
  • Thus the Trend Setter can be from any nation and is not necessarily from Sri Lanka.
Position Filter

This rating filters the OVERALL Rating to include performances of opening batsmen. Innings played only at the specified position are counted in this rating.

THE CRITERIA

CRITERIA CONSTITUENTS
Primary Runs, Average, Top Inns, Strike Rate
Conditions Home, Away, In Asia, Outside Asia
Secondary Top Form Home and Away, Difficult Runs, Impact Inns
The Trend Setter (TS)

TS is the player which does the best in a criteria. The rating of all other players are calculated taking the TS as the benchmark. Know All About TS. Here is an example:-

  • TS Runs: 2,000; Player X Runs: 1,000; Section Points: 250.00
  • TS Points: 250.00(Max); Player X Points: Runs/TS Runs X 250 = 1,000/2,000 X 250 = 125.00
  • Ratings of all sections are calculated similarly with Runs being replaced by the Criteria Stat.
Top Teams (TT)

Some sections consider performances only against the top teams. Here is some information about the Top Teams:-

  • Win/Loss Ratio is used to determine top teams.
  • The top teams are calculated by decades.
  • Further, they are divided into In Asia and Outside Asia.
  • A batsman’s performace is counted in TT if it comes in the specific condition and in the specific decade.

QUALIFICATION

Min Innings 50

PRIMARY CRITERIA

The Primary Rating is divided into 4 main sections:-

CRITERIA STAT POINTS
Prolific Runs Scored 200.00
Consistent Average 500.00
Big Innings Potential Top Inns (Runs) 150.00
Attacking Strike Rate 150.00

PROLIFIC

The Eras

The time period from 1950 to present is divided into eras for this section. This is because less cricket was played earlier. To make it fair for earlier players they are compared with players of the same period with a slight reduction in points. Know More About Eras.

Era 1 MP before 1991
Era 2 MP between 1990 And 2016
Era 3 MP greater than 2015

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored

RANK ERA 1 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS SM Gavaskar IND 1971 1987 1979 203 9607 180.00
RANK ERA 2 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS AN Cook ENG 2006 2018 2012 278 11845 200.00
1 ST Jayasuriya SL 1994 2007 2000.5 152 5932 100.16
2 MS Atapattu SL 1997 2007 2002 136 5317 89.78
3 TM Dilshan SL 2009 2013 2011 53 2170 36.64
4 RS Mahanama SL 1986 1997 1991.5 72 2069 34.93
RANK ERA 3 NAT FP LP MP INNS RUNS RAT
TS DA Warner AUS 2011 2024 2017.5 202 8747 170.00
1 FDM Karunaratne SL 2012 2025 2018.5 186 7129 138.55

CONSISTENT

R Ave

Relative Average (R Ave) is a more accurate type of average. Know How It Is Calculated. Briefly, it takes into account:-

  • Strength of Opposition.
  • Positions at which a batsman has played.
  • Venues at which he has played.
  • Time Period in which he has been active

Criteria: Points For Relative Average

Min Qualification For TS
Min Runs 2500

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS UT Khawaja 72 9 3289 52.21 58.67 250.00
1 MS Atapattu 136 13 5317 43.23 43.34 184.67
2 TM Dilshan 53 2 2170 42.55 42.85 182.57
3 ST Jayasuriya 152 9 5932 41.48 41.83 178.24
4 FDM Karunaratne 186 7 7129 39.83 41.52 176.92
5 RS Mahanama 72 1 2069 29.14 31.05 132.29

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS UT Khawaja 66 9 3069 53.84 60.51 250.00
1 TM Dilshan 37 1 1516 42.11 42.41 175.20
2 ST Jayasuriya 110 4 4446 41.94 42.30 174.74
3 MS Atapattu 97 7 3374 37.49 37.59 155.29
4 FDM Karunaratne 135 4 4610 35.19 36.69 151.58
5 RS Mahanama 59 0 1652 28.00 29.83 123.25

BIG INNINGS POTENTIAL

Ave HS

In this criteria, we have taken the top 7 scores of the batsman in the specific condition. Average High Score (Ave HS) is simply the total runs in the 7 innings divided by 7.

Criteria: Points For Runs Scored In The Top 7 Inns

RANK BATSMAN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVE HS RAT
TS V Sehwag 319 309 293 254 201* 201 195 253.14 150.00
1 ST Jayasuriya 340 253 213 199 188 157 148 214.00 126.81
2 MS Atapattu 249 223 216* 207* 201* 201 185 211.71 125.45
3 FDM Karunaratne 244 196 186 179 158* 152 147 180.29 106.83
4 TM Dilshan 193 147 126 123* 121 112 109 133.00 78.81
5 RS Mahanama 153 151 109 85 78 73 69 102.57 60.78

ATTACKING

R SR

Relative Strike Rate (R SR) is calculated using the same method as R Ave with average being replaced with SR. Batsman who were active in earlier times benefit from this as SR was generally low earlier.

R4BF

Balls played by batsmen for many inns is not available for earlier times. When such is the case, we have used Runs For Balls Faced (R4BF) to determine the Strike Rate. This is the runs scored by the batsman for the available data of balls.

Criteria: Points For R SR

Min Qualification For TS
Min Runs 2500
Min Average 25
RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS V Sehwag 8207 9875 83.11 80.26 150.00
1 TM Dilshan 2170 3041 71.36 68.59 128.19
2 ST Jayasuriya 5932 8995 65.95 67.68 126.50
3 FDM Karunaratne 7129 13802 51.65 49.60 92.70
4 RS Mahanama 2005 4703 42.63 48.10 89.91
5 MS Atapattu 5317 11915 44.62 45.49 85.03

PRIMARY RATING

The total of the above four criteria comes out to be 1,000.00 points. The Primary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is half of the OVERALL Rating, i.e. 500.00 pts.

RANK BATSMAN PRO CON BIP ATT RAT PRI PTS
1 ST Jayasuriya 100.16 352.98 126.81 126.50 706.45 353.22
2 FDM Karunaratne 138.55 328.50 106.83 92.70 666.59 333.29
3 MS Atapattu 89.78 339.97 125.45 85.03 640.22 320.11
4 TM Dilshan 36.64 357.76 78.81 128.19 601.41 300.70
5 RS Mahanama 34.93 255.53 60.78 89.91 441.15 220.58

CONDITIONS CRITERIA

The Conditions

The Conditions Ratings are calculated by applying the four criteria of the Primary Rating to diffirent conditions. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points. Click on the Rating Titles to see how they were calculated.

The four conditions criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Home 250.00
Away 1,000.00
Familiar Conditions 250.00
Unfamiliar Conditions 1,000.00

HOME/AWAY

HOME/AWAY RATING

Points to note:-

  • U.A.E. is considered as a second Home for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
  • All Home and Away stats of Pakistani and Afghani batsmen are calculated accordingly.

At Home

Min Innings: 20

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 ST Jayasuriya 87 3629 44.26 65.14 755.98 189.00
2 FDM Karunaratne 77 3741 50.55 55.65 738.89 184.72
3 MS Atapattu 72 2650 41.41 44.95 630.59 157.65
4 TM Dilshan 31 1219 42.03 75.62 581.99 145.50
5 RS Mahanama 34 1091 33.06 46.33 462.43 115.61

Away From Home

Min Innings: 20

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 MS Atapattu 64 2667 45.20 44.30 595.35 595.35
2 ST Jayasuriya 65 2303 37.75 67.26 591.60 591.60
3 FDM Karunaratne 109 3388 32.27 47.85 577.09 577.09
4 TM Dilshan 22 951 43.23 66.55 564.53 564.53
5 RS Mahanama 38 978 25.74 39.33 377.45 377.45

FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS

FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS RATING

Points to note:-

  • Unfamiliar Conditions (UC) is Outside Asia for Asians and In Asia for Non Asians.
  • Familiar Conditions (FC) are the opposite.

Familiar Conditions Rating

Asians In Asia

Min Innings: 20

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 ST Jayasuriya 103 4442 45.33 64.97 766.04 191.51
2 FDM Karunaratne 114 5043 46.27 53.37 740.57 185.14
3 MS Atapattu 92 3347 39.85 44.24 606.98 151.74
4 TM Dilshan 38 1563 43.42 73.80 585.32 146.33
5 RS Mahanama 50 1570 32.04 44.22 463.28 115.82

Unfamiliar Conditions Rating

Asians Outside Asia

Min Innings: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 MS Atapattu 44 1970 50.51 45.30 867.30 867.30
2 ST Jayasuriya 49 1490 33.11 69.05 685.39 685.39
3 FDM Karunaratne 72 2086 29.80 47.93 668.49 668.49
4 TM Dilshan 15 607 40.47 65.76 582.23 582.23
5 RS Mahanama 22 499 22.68 38.47 355.67 355.67

CONDITIONS RATING

The total of the above four criteria comes out to be 2,500.00 points. The Conditions Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is one-fourth of the OVERALL Rating, i.e. 250 pts.

RANK BATSMAN AWAY HOME UC FC TOT CON PTS
1 MS Atapattu 595.35 157.65 867.30 151.74 1,772.04 177.20
2 ST Jayasuriya 591.60 189.00 685.39 191.51 1,657.50 165.75
3 FDM Karunaratne 577.09 184.72 668.49 185.14 1,615.44 161.54
4 TM Dilshan 564.53 145.50 582.23 146.33 1,438.59 143.86
5 RS Mahanama 377.45 115.61 355.67 115.82 964.55 96.45

SECONDARY CRITERIA

The Secondary Rating consists of four parts. If Innings are less than the Qualification than the Player gets 50% of the Points. Click on the Rating Titles to see how they were calculated.

The four secondary criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Top Form Home 200.00
Top Form Away 800.00
Difficult Runs 500.00
Impact Innings 1,000.00
TOP FORM RATING

Points to note about Top Form Rating:-

  • Top Form is calculated by taking the best 30 consecutive innings of a batsman.
  • There are two TF Ratings used in our OVERALL Rating: Home and Away.

TOP FORM AT HOME

Min Innings: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 FDM Karunaratne 30 2081 71.76 58.77 797.66 159.53
2 ST Jayasuriya 30 1588 56.71 63.67 730.19 146.04
3 MS Atapattu 30 1488 62.00 45.84 669.16 133.83
4 TM Dilshan 30 1162 41.50 75.50 535.59 107.12
5 RS Mahanama 30 1062 35.40 46.35 474.45 94.89

TOP FORM AWAY

Min Innings: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 MS Atapattu 30 1582 58.59 49.61 742.73 594.19
2 ST Jayasuriya 30 1129 40.32 67.36 602.80 482.24
3 FDM Karunaratne 30 1262 43.52 46.23 586.15 468.92
4 TM Dilshan 22 951 43.23 66.55 575.47 460.37
5 RS Mahanama 30 767 25.57 40.08 373.87 299.10

DIFFICULT RUNS

DIFF RNS RATING

Points to note:-

  • Difficult Runs are runs scored in the first and fourth innings after losing the toss.
  • Only performances against Top Teams are considered in this rating.

Min Innings: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 FDM Karunaratne 26 1130 47.08 51.53 835.11 417.56
2 ST Jayasuriya 20 699 36.79 66.70 647.41 323.70
3 MS Atapattu 18 609 35.82 39.06 540.39 270.19
4 TM Dilshan 4 65 16.25 NK 500.00 250.00
4 RS Mahanama 9 188 20.89 33.22 500.00 250.00

IMPACT INNINGS

Impact Innings (II)

Impact Innings are those innings which have an impact in terms of runs or Strike Rate. Know All About II. Points to note about II:-

  • 1st & 2nd and 3rd & 4th innings are clubbed together.
  • A Batsman should score at least 30 runs to qualify.
  • An Inn is included in II if it is 20% of the total runs of the higher total or
  • The runs are more than 12.5% of the total runs and
  • The SR is high or in a successful chase while being Not Out.

Min Innings: 50

RANK BATSMAN DIS II II/Dis% RAT WTG
1 MS Atapattu 123 28 22.76 586.71 586.71
2 ST Jayasuriya 143 28 19.58 512.69 512.69
3 TM Dilshan 51 12 23.53 464.95 464.95
4 FDM Karunaratne 179 33 18.44 453.33 453.33
5 RS Mahanama 71 11 15.49 408.75 408.75

SECONDARY RATING

The total of the above four criteria comes out to be 2,500.00 points. Secondary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is one-fourth of the OVERALL Rating, i.e. 250.00 pts.

RANK BATSMAN TF HM TF AW DIF RNS II TOT SEC RAT
1 MS Atapattu 133.83 594.19 270.19 586.71 1,584.92 158.49
2 FDM Karunaratne 159.53 468.92 417.56 453.33 1,499.34 149.93
3 ST Jayasuriya 146.04 482.24 323.70 512.69 1,464.67 146.47
4 TM Dilshan 107.12 460.37 250.00 464.95 1,282.44 128.24
5 RS Mahanama 94.89 299.10 250.00 408.75 1,052.74 105.27

OVERALL RATING

The OVERALL Rating is the addition of the points of all the above criteria. The rating is out of 1,000 Pts. Half the points are for Primary Criteria; one-fourth for Conditions; and one-fourth for Secondary Criteria.

RANK OV RANK BATSMAN NAT PRI RAT CON RAT SEC RAT FIN RAT
1 16 ST Jayasuriya SL 353.22 165.75 146.47 665.44
2 18 MS Atapattu SL 320.11 177.20 158.49 655.81
3 19 FDM Karunaratne SL 333.29 161.54 149.93 644.77
4 43 TM Dilshan SL 300.70 143.86 128.24 572.81
5 82 RS Mahanama SL 220.58 96.45 105.27 422.30

TOP TEAMS

Top Teams In Asia

DECADE OF MAT 1 2 3 4 5 6
1950s AUS WI PAK IND ENG
1960s WI AUS PAK IND NZ ENG
1970s PAK ENG IND WI SA
1980s PAK WI ENG NZ IND
1990s IND PAK SA AUS SL WI
2000s AUS IND SL PAK SA ENG
2010s IND PAK SL ENG NZ SA
2020s IND AUS PAK NZ ENG SL

Top Teams Outside Asia

DECADE OF MAT 1 2 3 4 5 6
1950s AUS ENG WI SA
1960s ENG AUS WI SA NZ
1970s SA ENG WI AUS IND
1980s WI NZ AUS ENG PAK
1990s AUS SA WI PAK ENG NZ
2000s AUS ENG SA IND NZ PAK
2010s SA AUS ENG NZ IND PAK
2020s AUS ENG NZ SA IND WI

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