Wedagedara Sadeera Rashen Samarawickrama (; born 30 August 1995), popularly as Sadeera Samarawickrama, 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 who represents the national team in all formats of the game. He was part of Sri Lanka's squad for the

2014 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2014 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was a one-day cricket competition for sixteen international U-19 cricketing teams which was played in the United Arab Emirates. It was the tenth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup. Sixteen nations co ...

. He is a past pupil of Thurstan College and St. Josephs College,

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

,Sri Lanka.

Domestic career

He made the most runs in the

2016–17 Premier League Tournament The 2016–17 Premier League Tournament was the 29th season of first-class cricket in Sri Lanka's Premier Trophy. Fourteen teams competed, split into two groups of seven. Burgher Recreation Club replaced Sri Lanka Ports Authority Cricket Club, ...

, with a total of 1,016 from 10 matches and 19 innings. In November 2017, he was named the best batsman in domestic cricket for the 2016–17 season at

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 ...

's annual awards. In March 2018, he was named in Galle's squad for the

2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament The 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament was a first-class cricket tournament, that was played in Sri Lanka during March and April 2018. It took place following the conclusion of the 2017–18 Premier League Tournament and featured four te ...

. The following month, he was also named in Galle's squad for the

2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament The 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament was a List A cricket tournament that was played in Sri Lanka between 2 May and 10 June 2018, following the conclusion of the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. Four teams took part in the com ...

. In August 2018, he was named in Dambulla's squad the 2018 SLC T20 League. In February 2019, in the first day of the

2018–19 SLC Twenty20 Tournament The 2018–19 SLC Twenty20 Tournament was a Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in Sri Lanka. It was played between twenty-four domestic teams in Sri Lanka, with the tournament running from 15 to 27 February 2019. Nondescripts Cricket Club ...

, Samarawickrama scored an unbeaten century for

Colts Cricket Club Colts Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. They have won 6 first class tournaments of Sri Lanka domestic league as in 1991/92, 1999/2000, 2001/02, 2004/05, 2008/09 and 2011/12 and 2 Premier Limited Overs Tourna ...

against Police Sports Club. In March 2019, he was named in Kandy's squad for the

2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament The 2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament was a List A cricket tournament that was played in Sri Lanka between 4 and 11 April 2019. Four teams took part in the competition: Colombo, Dambulla, Galle and Kandy, with Galle being the defending ch ...

. In August 2021, he was named in the SLC Blues team for the

2021 SLC Invitational T20 League The 2021 SLC Invitational T20 League or Dialog Invitational T20 League (for sponsors) was a Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place in Sri Lanka from 12 to 24 August 2021. All the matches were played at the Pallekele International Cricket S ...

tournament. In July 2022, he was signed by the

Jaffna Kings Jaffna Kings (), formerly known as Jaffna Stallions, is a franchise cricket team which plays in the Lanka Premier League (LPL). Kings are the current title holder of the tournament. The team was coached by former Sri Lankan captain Thilina K ...

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 ...

International career

Samarawickrama was part of the Sri Lankan team in the

ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2017 The 2017 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup was the second edition of the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup held in Bangladesh. Eight teams participated in the tournament including four under-23 age level teams of Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may ref ...

tournament. He scored 45 runs in the final to win the low scoring match against Pakistan. This was the first time that Sri Lanka went onto win the tournament. In September 2017, he was named in Sri Lanka's

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

squad for their series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. He made his Test debut for Sri Lanka against Pakistan on 6 October 2017 in Sri Lanka's first day-night Test match. In the first innings, he scored 38 runs and had a swift 68-run stand with centurion

Dimuth Karunaratne Frank Dimuth Madushanka Karunaratne (born 21 April 1988; ), popularly known as Dimuth Karunaratne, is a Sri Lankan former professional cricketer and former captain of Test cricket, Test and One Day International, ODI team of Sri Lanka national cr ...

. His inside-out drives to

Yasir Shah Yasir Shah SI (; born 2 May 1986) is an international cricketer from Pakistan. He plays as a bowler, and is the joint-second fastest bowler in the history of Test cricket to take 100 wickets, as well as also being the fastest to pick up 200 wi ...

was described similar to that of maestro Mahela Jayawardena's stroke play by critics. In October 2017, he was named in Sri Lanka's

One Day Internationals 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 year ...

(ODI) squad for their series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates. He made his ODI debut for Sri Lanka against Pakistan on 20 October 2017. He was dismissed for nought in both matches, becoming the third batsman after

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who List of India national cricket captains#Men's cricket, captained the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer ...

and

Kane Williamson Kane Stuart Williamson (born 8 August 1990) is a New Zealand international cricketer and a former captain of the New Zealand national team. On 27 February 2023, Williamson became the all-time leading run-scorer for New Zealand in Test cricket. ...

to dismissed for nought in first two ODIs. Later the same month, he was named in Sri Lanka's

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). ...

(T20I) squad for their series also against Pakistan. He made his T20I debut for Sri Lanka against Pakistan on 26 October 2017, keeping wicket in the match. In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by

ahead of the 2018–19 season. In June 2022, he was named in the Sri Lanka A squad for their matches against Australia A during Australia's tour of Sri Lanka. In April 2023, Samarawickrama returned to the Sri Lanka's Test squad after six years for their series against Ireland. On 17 April 2023, during the first Test, he scored his maiden

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

in Test cricket, and became the first Sri Lankan wicket-keeper to score a century since 2016. His score of 104 runs was also the highest score by a Sri Lankan player while batting at Number 8 or lower in Tests. In the second T20I against Afghanistan, Samarawickrama scored his maiden T20I fifty with 51 off 42 and eventually Sri Lanka won the match by 72 runs and sealed the series 2-0 with one game to spare. 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.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samarawickrama, Sadeera 1995 births Living people Sri Lankan cricketers Sri Lanka Test cricketers Sri Lanka One Day International cricketers Sri Lanka Twenty20 International cricketers 21st-century Sri Lankan sportsmen Cricketers from Colombo Colombo Commandos cricketers Colts Cricket Club cricketers Kegalle District cricketers Dambulla Aura cricketers Wicket-keepers