Nuwan Thushara

International Career

Known to the world as “new generation Lasith Malinga”, Nuwan Thushara is a rising star from the Sri Lankan cricket team. He earned the limelight due to his improving skills as a bowler and more specifically due to his slinging bowling action and posture, which is quite similar to the legend Lasith Malinga who had his special and energetic bowling style. He is a right-arm medium-fast bowler with some incredibly perfect abilities to pace and swing the balls. He has turned out to be a great asset for the Sri Lankan team due to his way of handling the deliveries in the death overs, he can accurately deliver some unbeatable yorkers and sometimes slow the balls to play with variations.

Thushara is a deadly bowler who is difficult to face because of his variations and pace, and his performance in domestic cricket and some other franchise performances have earned him a place in the Sri Lanka cricket team many times in limited-over formats. However, Thushara is especially a T20I specialist for the Sri Lankan team as he is very suitable for the format due to his bowling style and variations. Let us take a glance at his very fresh international career:

• January 2022: He was named in an international squad for the first time in the ODI format in a series against Zimbabwe. Yet, he did not get a chance in the playing XI.

• Later in January 2022: Thushara was selected for the Twenty20 International squad for an away tour against Australia and this time he was part of the playing XI.

• February 13, 2022: Thushara made his first-ever international debut against Australia in Sydney, Australia, in a T20I match in the series Sri Lanka tour of Australia. In this match, he bagged his first international wicket with an economy of 10.00.

• June 2022: He was again named in Sri Lanka's ODI squad for the home series against Australia, but unfortunately, he did not get a chance to play in the main squad.

• March 09, 2024: in the third T20I match against Bangladesh in Sylhet, Bangladesh, he secured his first hat-trick by dismissing Shanto, Hridoy and Mahmudullah in three consecutive deliveries and became the fifth bowler from Sri Lanka to take a hat-trick in T20Is. He also marked his first five-wicket haul in the same match.

• 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup: He turned out to be the best addition to the World Cup squad as he was the leading wicket-taker from Sri Lanka with 8 wickets including a four-wicket haul against Bangladesh and a three-wicket haul against the Netherlands.

Indian Premier League

Nuwan Thushara is a dynamic bowling asset in the world of cricket, he has showcased his worth to the whole world with his incredible performances which are often compared to Lasth Malinga. Indian Premier League is the biggest T20 cricket league that every player wants to be a part of. Nuwan Thusara was one of them and he got a chance to play and prove his worth to stay in the league. He was picked by Mumbai Indians (MI) in the 2024 IPL season for the first time. He has played approximately 7 matches in his IPL career and accumulated 8 wickets with an average of 32.13. His best figures is 3/28 against Lucknow SuperGiants in 2024. Let us take a detailed overview of his IPL career season-wise:-

Domestic Career

Thushara started his professional career with his debut in First-Class cricket when he played for Sinhalese Sports Club during the 2015-16 Premier League Tournament on 26 December 2015. He made his debut against Sri Lanka Army Sports Club in Colombo in the AIA Premier League Tournament, he bowled 6 overs with an economy of 2.83 and his batting figures were 0* in the first innings of the match and he did not get a chance to bowl or bat in the second innings.

He made his List-A debut for the Colombo Cricket Club against Burgher Recreation Club at Colombo on March 10, 2018, in the Premier Limited Over Tournament. He managed to secure a wicket on his debut match with an economy of 3.5. He accumulated only 46 wickets in his List-A career but his growing reputation is an indication of his upcoming success.

Records and Achievements

Nuwan Thushara is a well-deserving player who deserves more recognition because of his efforts towards improving his performance in different formats. He has not yet achieved much in his career in terms of awards and records that are to be remembered.

Awards:

Thushara has not received any awards according to records or any information about such is not available.

Records:

Thushara does not have any noticeable records due to his very short international career to this date. But he holds the 29th position in both the lists of most four-wickets in an innings in a career (3) and best figures in an innings when on the losing side (4).

Personal Life

The lightning-fast bowler of Sri Lanka, Nuwan Thushara was born on August 06, 1994, in Thalawa, Sri Lanka. He completed his schooling at Thalawa Kanitu Vidyalaya in Alpitiya and other detailed information on his further studies is not precisely available. He used to play cricket as a kid and started developing his skills from a young age and he also participated in various local cricket tournaments.