Who is Kamindu Mendis? Sunrisers Hyderabad's ambidextrous weapon, making IPL debut against Kolkata Knight Riders

Sunrisers Hyderabad unleashed their ambidextrous cricketer Kamindu Mendis against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their IPL 2025 encounter on Thursday at the Eden Gardens. Kamindu Mendis, who can bowl with his both hands, became the fourth Sri Lankan after Kumar Sangakkara, Thisara Perera and Vijayakanth Viyaskanth to represent Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL.

The 26-year-old who can bowl both off-spin and leg-spin, was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for ₹75 lakhs, kept his captain's faith straightaway with the wicket of Angkrish Raghuvanshi.

Having made his international debut in 2022, Kamindu Mendis excelled in the longest format of the game particularly. However, his maturity at the age of 26 and the versatility he brings both ball and bat, made the 2016 champions invest in the Sri Lankan.

Kamindu Mendis - all you need to know

The highlight of Kamindu Mendis' career was 2024 when he won the ICC Men’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year award for making 1458 runs, across formats. The left-handed batter made his Test debut in 2022 against Australia, scoring 61 in the only innings he batted.

However, it turned out to be his only Test match appearance until 2024. He smashed five centuries in Tests, including the one against England in Manchester. Kamindu Mendis has played 23 T20Is, and hasn’t created a major impact, scoring just two fifties at an average of 19.05 and a strike rate of 122.5.

During India’s tour of Sri Lanka in 2024, Kamindu Mendis bowled with left hand to Suryakumar Yadav and with right hand to Rishabh Pant. He had also represented Sri Lanka in the 2016 Under-19 World Cup, taking five wickets.

What is ambidextrous cricketer?

Ambidextrous is s skill that allows a cricketer to bat and bowl with either hand, a rare skill that provides a unique advantage to the player and the team he or she is playing for in the game.

KKR v SRH playing XIs, IPL 2025

Kolkata Knight Riders: Quinton de Kock, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Kamindu Mendis, Pat Cummins, Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Zeeshan Ansari

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