Dunith Nethmika Wellalage (born 9 January 2003) is a professional Sri Lankan

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er currently plays limited overs cricket for the national side. He made his international debut for the

Sri Lanka cricket team The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, (; ) nicknamed The Lions, represents Sri Lanka in men's international cricket. It is a full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and T20 Internat ...

in June 2022 to a series against

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. He was educated at St. Sebastian's College,

Moratuwa Moratuwa () is a large municipality on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, near Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. It is situated on the Galle–Colombo (Galle road) main highway, south of the centre of Colombo. Moratuwa is surrounded on three sides ...

and St. Joseph's College, Colombo 10.

Domestic and franchise career

Wellalage made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

debut on 14 December 2019, for Lankan Cricket Club in the 2019–20 Invitation Limited Over Tournament. In July 2022, he was signed by the Jaffna Kings for the third edition of the

Lanka Premier League The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; , ) is a professional franchise cricket league established in 2020 in Sri Lanka. Matches are played using the Twenty20 cricket format by five teams named after Sri Lankan cities. The league was int ...

. He was also signed by Fortune Barishal in the tenth edition of Bangladesh Premier League.

International career

In January 2022, he was named as the captain of Sri Lanka's team for the 2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. In Sri Lanka's opening fixture of the tournament, he took a

five-wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batter. Takin ...

, and was named the player of the match. In Sri Lanka's next match of the tournament, he took another five-wicket haul, and was again named the player of the match. In Sri Lanka's Super League playoff semi-final match against South Africa, Wellalage scored 113 runs, with Sri Lanka winning the match by 65 runs. He became the first captain of the Sri Lankan team to score a century in the Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He finished the Under-19 World Cup as the leading wicket-taker, with seventeen dismissals. In April 2022,

Sri Lanka Cricket Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka. It was first registered with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Sports (Sri Lanka), Ministry of Sports as the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka on 30 June 1975 as a national ...

(SLC) named him in the Sri Lanka Emerging Team's squad for their tour to England. On 25 May 2022, during the tour of England, he made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut, against

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. The following month, he was named in the Sri Lanka A squad for their matches against Australia A during Australia's tour of Sri Lanka. Later the same month, he was named in Sri Lanka's

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

(ODI) squad, also for their series against Australia. He made his ODI debut on 14 June 2022, for Sri Lanka against

. The following month, he was added to Sri Lanka's

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squad for the second match against Australia. In July 2022, he was again named in Sri Lanka's Test squad, this time for their home series against Pakistan. He made his Test debut on 24 July 2022, for Sri Lanka against

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. In March 2023, he was named in both

and

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

squad for the series against New Zealand. In May 2024, he was named in Sri Lanka’s squad for the

2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the ninth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, co-hosted by Cricket West Indies and USA Cricket from 1 to 29 June 2024. It was the first major ICC tournament to include matches played in the United ...

tournament. On August 2, 2024 first ODI match against India Dunith scored his maiden ODI half century. He scored unbeaten 67 runs from 65 balls hitting seven boundaries and two sixes. He also took two crucial wickets of

Rohit Sharma Rohit Sharma (born 30 April 1987) is an Indian Cricket, international cricketer and the Captain (cricket), captain of the India national cricket team, national team in One Day International, ODIs. He is also a former captain in Tests and T20 ...

and Shubman Gill while bowling. Finally the match ended as a tie. Due to his performance he won player of the match award. He made his T20I debut on 15 October 2024 against West Indies.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wellalage, Dunith 2003 births Living people Cricketers from Colombo Sri Lankan cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Twenty20 International cricketers 21st-century Sri Lankan sportsmen Lankan Cricket Club cricketers Colts Cricket Club cricketers Jaffna Kings cricketers Colombo Stars cricketers Fortune Barishal cricketers Barbados Royals cricketers