Dhammika Prasad is carrying Sri Lanka on his shoulders

Dhammika Prasad

It’s a couple of days before the third Test, and Dhammika Prasad has just arrived for his team’s practice. You find him right outside the memorabilia store, which is located right next to the gate at the SSC. Prasad is holding court for a couple of Sri Lanka Cricket staff and he has them in splits, which generally is the case whenever the burly Sri Lankan fast bowler is in his element.

It’s been three days since he walked all around the P Sara Oval with Kumar Sangakkara on his shoulders. This has become a penchant of his, almost an obsession, carrying retiring legends for a jolly guard of honour on their last days. He had already done it for Muttiah Muralitharan and Mahela Jayawardene but ascertains that Sangakkara was the heaviest, the most fidgety and the toughest to convince. He then guffaws loudly.

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Fast-forward three days, and Prasad is not laughing. He’s not even smiling, which is rather rare for the affable pacer. He is instead shaking his head in annoyance, giving a piece of his mind to the fielder at point for letting the ball slip through his fingers, and is repeatedly throwing looks of anguish and disgust at the heavens. It was understandable. Prasad was shouldering the burden of the Sri Lankan attack, not for the first time this summer, and he was also in the middle of a dream spell.

If anything it was a master-class on how you should operate as a fast bowler on a subcontinent pitch with assistance on it. He had set his radar on a spot just short of driving length and on the proverbial fourth stump, and the 32-year-old was hardly pitching the ball anywhere else. From there, some left the right-handers while a few jagged back in. The first ball of the second day struck Virat Kohli flush on the pads. Nothing but fortitude and umpire Nigel Llong’s judgement — erroneous as it would be — could have saved the Indian captain. Disgruntled but also inspired, Prasad then went about testing Kohli on his front-foot over and over again, beating the outside-edge of his bat or hurrying him up with a sharp in-swinger. For most of it, Prasad was calling the shots, and Kohli was all at sea. But to no avail. No wonder he wasn’t happy when Tharindu Kaushal failed to stop a ball headed straight in his direction at point.

By the time Angelo Mathews took him off, a harried Prasad — who later revealed to have been bowling with a stiff neck — had finished his first spell wicket-less. It was like watching someone fish without a bait, but still coming tantalizing close to wheeling in a catch. Prasad is popular not only in the Sri Lankan dressing-room, but his affability has won him admirers off the field as well. To the extent that the camera-men poised right outside the media-box on the far side of the ground cheer and clap every time Prasad is brought on from their end. To his credit, he always waves back.

So it happened when Prasad was brought back for a second burst with only minutes left before the lunch-break. And his prey finally found the net, as Rohit Sharma edged an out-swinger to first-slip.

On a day dominated by Cheteshwar Pujara, Sri Lanka only seemed to be a part of the contest when Prasad was in the attack. And he would strike twice in the second-session, first removing Stuart Binny with the first ball after the lunch-break, and then R Ashwin with another expertly executed out-swinger that dragged the right-hander into the trap.

Prasad’s the maverick and the jester rolled into one. He’ll refer to you as ‘mate’, apologize each time he’s late for a press conference—even if nobody was likely to hold it against him—and rarely ever let you leave it without getting a laugh out of you.

“I’m the captain at the SSC this season, and these are the kind of wickets you will see,” he would when asked about enjoying the grass on the SSC wicket.

But on the field he’s their talisman. He’s their unrelenting workhorse, and like he will remind you there’s nothing funny about bowling your heart out when the Colombo sun’s at its most unforgiving. And he lets batsmen know they’re in a contest both with ball, and at times with his mouth. On Saturday, he ran in for each ball like his life depended on it, and he bowled his heart out, finishing with a four-wicket haul.

Speaking of carrying his idols on his shoulders, Prasad hopes someday when his time comes, his teammates would return the favour. Saturday at the SSC wouldn’t have been a bad day for a rehearsal.