He is among those rare bowlers capable of bowling with both hands.
Sri Lanka have lately produced some useful ambidextrous bowlers who have found ample success at the competitive level. Among them is Tharindu Rathnayake, who has taken giant strides in the last year or so. He has been around the Sri Lankan setup for a while, but his craft has garnered public attention only recently.
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Tharindu Rathnayake is a 29-year-old ambidextrous spinner, capable of bowling with both hands and is a handy batter. He bowls right-arm off-spin to left-handers and left-arm orthodox to right-handers, making him among the rarest kinds of bowlers. Another player who does the same role is Kamindu Mendis.
Tharindu made his First Class debut in 2015 and has played 77 red-ball matches so far. He has 355 wickets at an average of 29.48 in 137 innings, including 27 five-wicket and five ten-wicket hauls. He also has 1821 runs at an average of 20.93 in 103 FC innings, with nine fifties.
Earlier this year, Tharindu Rathnayake was part of Sri Lanka’s Test side against Bangladesh, taking nine wickets at 43.22 runs apiece in four innings, with a best of 3/102. During this series, he became the first bowler to take wickets from both arms in Test cricket history. He also made his List A cricket debut in 2015 and has snared 130 wickets at an average of 25.21 in 85 innings, comprising a five-wicket haul.
With the bat, he has 925 runs at an average of 18.50 and a strike rate of 94.77 in 66 List A innings, including two half-centuries. The 29-year-old has also played 65 T20s, during which he has taken 75 wickets at an average of 17.61 and an economy rate of 6.11 in 60 outings, including three four-wicket hauls. His ability to bowl immaculate lines and lengths is evident from his frugal economy rate, one of the reasons why Tharindu is slowly coming onto franchises’ radars across the globe.
The Orange Army have employed two ambidextrous spinners in their franchises – Kamindu Mendis in IPL and Tharindu Rathnayake in SA20. Rathnayake has been part of Sunrisers Eastern Cape in SA20 2026 as a partial replacement for Allah Ghazanfar, who is currently playing in ILT20 2025/26. He will play the initial few matches for the team.
Rathnayake has started the campaign on a high note, taking two wickets for nine runs in 2.5 overs against Paarl Royals. He again showed his ambidextrous skills in the game, bowling off-breaks and left-arm spin to LHBs and RHBs, simultaneously. That makes him unpredictable and hard to counter.
The most encouraging part is his control: despite bowling with both hands, Tharindu Rathnayake remains accurate for most of the time and hardly leaves his lengths. If he continues to impress in the remaining games, more franchises across the globe will notice him. Soon, he will also be part of Sri Lanka’s national side across formats, given he contributes decently with both bat and ball.
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