CricketGeek Player Profiles: Jeevan Mendis

When talking about Mendis, the first name that comes to mind for modern cricket fans is Ajantha, the mystery spinner. For slightly older fans, there could be a number of players thought of, as there have been over 30 players called Mendis play first class cricket in Sri Lanka (and one Gehan Mendis play 366 first class matches in England). The subject of this profile, however is Jeevan Mendis.

At schoolboy level Mendis was a star with both the bat and ball for the prestigious St Thomas' School. He got a call up to play in the Under-19 team, and he continued to shine, having respectable averages of 51 with the bat and 13 with the ball.

It has taken him a while to become a regular player for the national side, but he is starting to establish himself now. In his recent domestic T20 matches he's averaged about 30 with the bat and about 24 with the ball. If he can keep this ratio up in the international level, he could become an indispensable bits-n-pieces players, like Albie Morkel, Scott Styris or Abdul Razzaq.

He relies more on placement than power with the bat, but he has a good reverse sweep, so he has the ability to create headaches for the fielding captain by hitting the ball to unusual places. He bowls leg-spin, but with a slightly unorthodox grip that make it difficult to read him out of the hand. Accordingly he should be the sort of bowler who can get out the tail quickly, which might be a very useful skill in the first game for Sri Lanka. He might not be a bad player to have in your fantasy team for the match against Zimbabwe.