We are just a couple of days away from leaving 2021 behind us. Looking back at the cricket of 2021, we find it mostly indulged by T20 cricket for obvious reasons. Teams put serious emphasis on T20 with a world cup on the horizon.
The few spotlights in test cricket were mostly taken by Joe Root for the astonishing year he had.
The leftovers were taken by New Zealand for their triumph in the inaugural ICC Test Championship which happens to be their first-ever ICC World Championship trophy.
As a result, many performances slipped from our attention, many performers too. If we make a list of that, Dimuth Karunaratne might be on top.
He has already established himself as one of the finest test openers in recent times. 2021 was a new high for him.
While the whole world got dazzled and kept praising Joe Root’s brilliance, Dimuth Karunanratne, silently, enjoyed a run galore in test cricket of his own this year.
He is the 3rd highest run-scorer of this year with 902 runs. He is quite behind the top. But the fact that he did it in only 7 matches and 13 innings makes his feat look staggering.
Sri Lanka played 9 tests this year. Dimuth Karunaratne featured in 7 of those, missing the England series in February. He played 4 at home, 3 away. His success mostly came at home. But he fared well in away grounds also.
It is already mentioned that he is the 3rd highest runs-scorer the year behind Joe Root and Rohit Sharma.
He scored at an average of 69.38, the most amongst batters with at least 270 or more runs. He scored 4 centuries which is 2nd most. Only Joe Root tops him with 6 centuries. He also crossed 50 runs total 7 times this year, once again getting topped by Joe Root only.
Among his 4 centuries, he converted one into a double-century. Not to mention that that particular inning of 244 against Bangladesh at Pallekele is the highest score in 2021.
Of his 4 centuries, 3 were at home and the other was away in South Africa. Of his 3 half-centuries, two were at home and the other one in Windies.
He had been extraterrestrial in Sri Lanka this year, scoring 706 runs in only 7 innings. He averaged 100.86 at home.
And the fact that he did all this in only 7 matches, which happens to be less than half of Joe Root, makes it special.
It also makes you wonder what would have happened if he played as much as Joe Root this year.
Maybe he couldn’t surpass Root. But a neck-to-neck battle, which could have rested in the fans’ memory for years, can not be denied.
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