Tests - Best Sri Lankan Opening Batsmen

Top 10 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 10 Sri Lankan opening batsmen in Test Cricket since 1950.

*Note: All Test Ratings are updated till 2025-09-10

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. IMPACT INNS
5.4. 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 & Away), Min 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 (TT) 25
Min Career Runs 1000

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
1 S Wettimuny SL 1982 1987 1984.5 43 1221 22.88
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
5 NT Paranavitana SL 2009 2012 2010.5 59 1743 29.43
6 WU Tharanga SL 2005 2017 2011 48 1365 23.05
7 UC Hathurusingha SL 1991 1996 1993.5 42 1260 21.27
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
2 JK Silva SL 2013 2018 2015.5 67 1900 36.93

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 1000

Against All Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS RB Simpson 70 4 3664 55.52 56.94 250.00
1 TM Dilshan 53 2 2170 42.55 43.62 191.53
2 MS Atapattu 136 13 5317 43.23 43.26 189.97
3 FDM Karunaratne 186 7 7129 39.83 41.90 183.98
4 ST Jayasuriya 152 9 5932 41.48 41.82 183.64
5 UC Hathurusingha 42 1 1260 30.73 33.06 145.15
6 NT Paranavitana 59 5 1743 32.28 32.99 144.86
7 RS Mahanama 72 1 2069 29.14 31.80 139.63
8 S Wettimuny 43 1 1221 29.07 31.44 138.06
9 JK Silva 67 0 1900 28.36 29.48 129.44
10 WU Tharanga 48 1 1365 29.04 28.54 125.32

Against Top Teams

RANK BATSMAN INNS NO RUNS AVE R AVE RAT
TS RB Simpson 65 4 3349 54.90 56.91 250.00
1 ST Jayasuriya 106 4 4373 42.87 44.66 196.18
2 TM Dilshan 39 1 1553 40.87 44.03 193.41
3 MS Atapattu 97 7 3374 37.49 38.79 170.41
4 FDM Karunaratne 131 3 4274 33.39 37.47 164.61
5 NT Paranavitana 47 3 1473 33.48 34.90 153.31
6 S Wettimuny 33 1 1009 31.53 34.70 152.41
7 UC Hathurusingha 33 0 933 28.27 31.33 137.64
8 RS Mahanama 55 0 1495 27.18 30.66 134.68
9 JK Silva 57 0 1528 26.81 28.53 125.33
10 WU Tharanga 37 0 802 21.68 22.39 98.36

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 S Wettimuny 190 157 96 79 71 65 63* 103.00 61.03
6 RS Mahanama 153 151 109 85 78 73 69 102.57 60.78
7 JK Silva 139 125 95 94 81 80 79 99.00 58.66
8 WU Tharanga 165 115 92 83 72 71* 71 95.57 56.63
9 NT Paranavitana 111 100 95 76* 75 73 72 86.00 50.96
10 UC Hathurusingha 83 81 74 73 67 66 59 71.86 42.58

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 1000
Min Average 25
RANK BATSMAN R4BF BF SR R SR RAT
TS V Sehwag 8207 9875 83.11 79.95 150.00
1 TM Dilshan 2170 3041 71.36 68.82 129.13
2 ST Jayasuriya 5932 8995 65.95 67.16 126.00
3 WU Tharanga 1365 2566 53.20 51.13 95.92
4 FDM Karunaratne 7129 13802 51.65 49.53 92.93
5 RS Mahanama 2005 4703 42.63 48.00 90.05
6 S Wettimuny 819 2010 40.75 46.47 87.19
7 MS Atapattu 5317 11915 44.62 45.19 84.79
8 NT Paranavitana 1743 4216 41.34 40.10 75.24
9 UC Hathurusingha 1260 3540 35.59 39.68 74.44
10 JK Silva 1900 4713 40.31 39.43 73.98

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 40 percent.

RANK BATSMAN PRO CON BIP ATT RAT PRI PTS
1 ST Jayasuriya 100.16 379.83 126.81 126.00 732.80 293.12
2 FDM Karunaratne 138.55 348.59 106.83 92.93 686.90 274.76
3 MS Atapattu 89.78 360.38 125.45 84.79 660.39 264.16
4 TM Dilshan 36.64 384.94 78.81 129.13 629.52 251.81
5 S Wettimuny 22.88 290.48 61.03 87.19 461.57 184.63
6 RS Mahanama 34.93 274.31 60.78 90.05 460.07 184.03
7 NT Paranavitana 29.43 298.18 50.96 75.24 453.80 181.52
8 JK Silva 36.93 254.77 58.66 73.98 424.34 169.73
9 UC Hathurusingha 21.27 282.78 42.58 74.44 421.08 168.43
10 WU Tharanga 23.05 223.69 56.63 95.92 399.29 159.72

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 30.00
Away 120.00
Familiar Conditions 30.00
Unfamiliar Conditions 120.00

HOME/AWAY

HM/AW 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 Vs Top Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 ST Jayasuriya 87 3629 44.26 65.14 723.20 21.70
2 FDM Karunaratne 77 3741 50.55 55.65 690.53 20.72
3 MS Atapattu 72 2650 41.41 44.95 601.48 18.04
4 TM Dilshan 31 1219 42.03 75.62 548.13 16.44
5 NT Paranavitana 35 1065 34.35 42.53 447.16 13.41
6 RS Mahanama 34 1091 33.06 46.33 441.30 13.24
7 WU Tharanga 32 793 24.78 55.18 354.33 10.63
8 JK Silva 30 655 21.83 38.15 306.87 9.21
9 UC Hathurusingha 20 465 24.47 35.09 300.57 9.02
10 S Wettimuny 21 382 18.19 34.58 261.71 7.85

Away From Home

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 MS Atapattu 64 2667 45.20 44.30 624.46 74.94
2 ST Jayasuriya 65 2303 37.75 67.26 620.94 74.51
3 FDM Karunaratne 109 3388 32.27 47.85 613.86 73.66
4 TM Dilshan 22 951 43.23 66.55 609.88 73.19
5 S Wettimuny 22 839 39.95 43.47 565.91 67.91
6 JK Silva 37 1245 33.65 41.56 471.52 56.58
7 UC Hathurusingha 22 795 36.14 35.89 468.80 56.26
8 RS Mahanama 38 978 25.74 39.33 404.38 48.53
9 WU Tharanga 16 572 38.13 50.66 398.85 47.86
10 NT Paranavitana 24 678 29.48 39.60 384.61 46.15

FAMILIAR/UNFAMILIAR CONDITIONS

FC/UC 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 Vs Top Teams: 10

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 ST Jayasuriya 103 4442 45.33 64.97 743.03 22.29
2 FDM Karunaratne 114 5043 46.27 53.37 716.70 21.50
3 MS Atapattu 92 3347 39.85 44.24 587.74 17.63
4 TM Dilshan 38 1563 43.42 73.80 571.63 17.15
5 RS Mahanama 50 1570 32.04 44.22 455.74 13.67
6 NT Paranavitana 49 1490 33.86 42.27 442.33 13.27
7 WU Tharanga 38 1139 30.78 55.78 388.71 11.66
8 JK Silva 43 1208 28.09 39.88 380.42 11.41
9 S Wettimuny 37 931 25.16 41.07 378.71 11.36
10 UC Hathurusingha 30 849 29.28 35.76 373.67 11.21

Unfamiliar Conditions Rating

Asians Outside Asia

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 5

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 MS Atapattu 44 1970 50.51 45.30 866.12 103.93
2 ST Jayasuriya 49 1490 33.11 69.05 677.97 81.36
3 FDM Karunaratne 72 2086 29.80 47.93 656.98 78.84
4 TM Dilshan 15 607 40.47 65.76 633.75 76.05
5 S Wettimuny 6 290 58.00 40.17 573.58 68.83
6 UC Hathurusingha 12 411 34.25 35.25 454.80 54.58
7 JK Silva 24 692 28.83 41.09 454.13 54.50
8 RS Mahanama 22 499 22.68 38.47 374.81 44.98
9 NT Paranavitana 10 253 25.30 36.61 350.95 42.11
10 WU Tharanga 10 226 22.60 43.13 319.71 38.37

CONDITIONS RATING

The Conditions Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the four criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 30%.

RANK BATSMAN AWAY HOME UC FC CON PTS
1 MS Atapattu 74.94 18.04 103.93 17.63 214.55
2 ST Jayasuriya 74.51 21.70 81.36 22.29 199.86
3 FDM Karunaratne 73.66 20.72 78.84 21.50 194.72
4 TM Dilshan 73.19 16.44 76.05 17.15 182.83
5 S Wettimuny 67.91 7.85 68.83 11.36 155.95
6 JK Silva 56.58 9.21 54.50 11.41 131.70
7 UC Hathurusingha 56.26 9.02 54.58 11.21 131.06
8 RS Mahanama 48.53 13.24 44.98 13.67 120.41
9 NT Paranavitana 46.15 13.41 42.11 13.27 114.95
10 WU Tharanga 47.86 10.63 38.37 11.66 108.52

SECONDARY CRITERIA

The Secondary Rating consists of three 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 three secondary criteria and thier weightage is as follows:-

CRITERIA POINTS
Top Form Home 30.00
Top Form Away 120.00
Impact Innings 150.00
TF RATING

Points to note about Top Form Rating:-

  • Top Form (TF) is calculated by taking the best 20 consecutive innings of a batsman.
  • There are two TF Ratings used in our OVERALL Rating: Home and Away.

TOP FORM AT HOME

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 5

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 FDM Karunaratne 20 1574 82.84 54.77 839.25 25.18
2 MS Atapattu 20 1156 72.25 44.86 724.74 21.74
3 ST Jayasuriya 20 1052 58.44 64.07 675.31 20.26
4 RS Mahanama 20 930 46.50 49.08 551.52 16.55
5 TM Dilshan 20 727 36.35 67.25 460.74 13.82
6 NT Paranavitana 20 713 39.61 43.82 439.08 13.17
7 WU Tharanga 20 664 33.20 58.35 418.73 12.56
8 JK Silva 20 588 29.40 39.36 353.54 10.61
9 UC Hathurusingha 20 465 24.47 35.09 292.31 8.77
10 S Wettimuny 20 376 18.80 36.32 262.51 7.88

TOP FORM AWAY

Min Innings Vs All Teams: 5

RANK BATSMAN INNS RUNS AVE SR RAT WTG
1 MS Atapattu 20 1174 65.22 49.91 784.77 94.17
2 ST Jayasuriya 20 960 50.53 65.80 673.89 80.87
3 TM Dilshan 20 912 45.60 67.71 648.81 77.86
4 FDM Karunaratne 20 887 46.68 47.08 588.73 70.65
5 S Wettimuny 20 821 43.21 43.47 571.85 68.62
6 JK Silva 20 802 40.10 43.28 504.32 60.52
7 UC Hathurusingha 20 758 37.90 35.69 481.71 57.81
8 WU Tharanga 16 572 38.13 50.66 440.45 52.85
9 NT Paranavitana 20 653 34.37 39.84 421.15 50.54
10 RS Mahanama 20 598 29.90 38.67 409.89 49.19

IMPACT INNS

II Rating

Impact Innings (II) are those innings which have a minimum 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 16.67% of the total runs of the higher total or
  • The runs are more than 10.00% of the total runs and
  • The SR is high or in a successful chase while being Not Out.

Min Innings Vs Top Teams: 25

RANK BATSMAN DIS II II/Dis% RAT WTG
1 MS Atapattu 123 35 28.46 611.05 91.66
2 ST Jayasuriya 143 36 25.17 555.86 83.38
3 TM Dilshan 51 15 29.41 553.23 82.98
4 FDM Karunaratne 179 41 22.91 491.71 73.76
5 S Wettimuny 42 8 19.05 426.96 64.04
6 NT Paranavitana 54 12 22.22 416.27 62.44
7 UC Hathurusingha 41 8 19.51 394.15 59.12
8 RS Mahanama 71 13 18.31 352.53 52.88
9 WU Tharanga 47 8 17.02 287.75 43.16
10 JK Silva 67 9 13.43 267.90 40.18

SECONDARY RATING

Secondary Rating is the addition of the points a batsman scored in the three criteria. The Weightage of the Rating is 30%.

RANK BATSMAN TF HM TF AW II SEC RAT
1 MS Atapattu 21.74 94.17 91.66 207.57
2 ST Jayasuriya 20.26 80.87 83.38 184.50
3 TM Dilshan 13.82 77.86 82.98 174.66
4 FDM Karunaratne 25.18 70.65 73.76 169.58
5 S Wettimuny 7.88 68.62 64.04 140.54
6 NT Paranavitana 13.17 50.54 62.44 126.15
7 UC Hathurusingha 8.77 57.81 59.12 125.70
8 RS Mahanama 16.55 49.19 52.88 118.61
9 JK Silva 10.61 60.52 40.18 111.31
10 WU Tharanga 12.56 52.85 43.16 108.58

OVERALL RATING

The OVERALL Rating is the addition of the points of all the above criteria. The rating is out of 1,000 Pts.

RANK OV RANK BATSMAN NAT PRI RAT CON RAT SEC RAT FIN RAT
1 17 MS Atapattu SL 264.16 214.55 207.57 686.27
2 19 ST Jayasuriya SL 293.12 199.86 184.50 677.48
3 27 FDM Karunaratne SL 274.76 194.72 169.58 639.06
4 41 TM Dilshan SL 251.81 182.83 174.66 609.30
5 86 S Wettimuny SL 184.63 155.95 140.54 481.12
6 104 UC Hathurusingha SL 168.43 131.06 125.70 425.19
7 106 RS Mahanama SL 184.03 120.41 118.61 423.06
8 108 NT Paranavitana SL 181.52 114.95 126.15 422.62
9 110 JK Silva SL 169.73 131.70 111.31 412.74
10 117 WU Tharanga SL 159.72 108.52 108.58 376.81

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 ENG SA
1970s PAK ENG IND WI SA AUS
1980s PAK WI ENG NZ AUS
1990s IND PAK SA AUS WI
2000s AUS IND SL PAK SA ENG
2010s IND PAK SL ENG SA AUS
2020s IND AUS PAK NZ ENG SA

Top Teams Outside Asia

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

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