Ruchira Perera

Panagodage Don Ruchira Laksiri Perera popularly known as Ruchira Perera is a left arm medium fast bowler and a left handed batsman with the Sri Lanka cricket team. He has also played for the Basnahira South, Colts Cricket Club, Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club and the Sinhalese Sports Club cricket teams.

Ruchira Perera started playing first class cricket in 1996. He made his debut in International cricket in a One day International match against England at Perth in 1999. Perera claimed the wickets of Knight, Alec Stewart and Naseer Hussain and gave away 55 runs in the 10 overs that he bowled. Coming on to bat, Perara was dismissed for a duck after getting caught by Hick off a ball by Mullally. England went on to win the match by 128 runs. The following month he played his first test match against India at Colombo. Perera bowled 30 overs and gave away 125 runs claiming just 1 wicket in the first innings. In the second innings, Perera bowled 14 overs and gave away 60 runs, however, could not claim any wickets. Perera was accompanied by Upashantha who was also debuting in test cricket. The match however ended in a draw.

In a total of 19 One day International matches, Perera has claimed 19 wickets at an economy of 5.54 runs per over. He also has a total of 17 wickets at an economy of 3.50 runs per over in the 8 test matches that he has played. His career best bowling figures are 3 wickets for 23 runs in ODI’s and 5 wickets for 138 runs in test cricket.