World T20 2016: Top 5 finds of the tournament: The sixth edition of the ICC World T20 turned out to a colourful tournament as it testified to several outstanding performances put up by some of the most prominent names in the realms of international cricket. While the individual exploits of well-established players like Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Samuel Badreelit up the 27 day long tournament, quite a few youngsters stepped up to the plate and grabbed the limelight on certain occasions with some startling performances. Thus in many ways, the recently concluded tournament acted as a celebrant of youth and vivacity and promoted a number of fresh faces who could go on to flourish in the international arena in the near future.
In this feature, we present the names of five players that left strong impressions on the minds of spectators in general and critics in particular with some eye catching displays.
- JEFFREY VANDERSAY (SRI LANKA)
In times of some serious turmoil enveloping Sri Lankan cricket, Jeffrey Vandersay’s induction into the squad has come as a breath of fresh air. The 26 year old leg spinner from Wattalamade a rather poor start to his international career in the first ODI of Sri Lanka’s tour of New Zealand late last year where he was severely mauled by New Zealand’s Martin Guptill who plundered 26 runs from his first over and Vandersay’s bowling figures at the end of the game stood at 2-0-34-0. Since then, he has seemingly worked harder and exhibited remarkable improvement in his game as is evident from his display at the ICC World T20 2016.Interestingly, Vandersay had initially been withdrawn from the Lankan squad named for the tournament but was redrafted soon after LasithMalinga was ruled out of the tournament owing to a knee injury.He didn’t let the opportunity to go to waste as he picked up3 wickets in 4 games with his best performance coming in Sri Lanka’s Group 1 fixture against England at the Feroz Shah Kotla where he claimed 2 wickets for 26 runs from his 4 overs which included the prized scalps of Jason Roy and Joe Root. In a recent interview given to an Indian news channel, Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara lavished praise on Vandersay by calling him a ‘player to look out for’ in the near future. Sri Lanka has had a long tradition of producing outstanding spinners who go on to excel at the international level with unmatched zeal. With RanganaHerath now in the twilight of his career, Vandersay has a mountain to climb if he intends to cement his placein the Sri Lankan side as their premier spinner across all formats. The task will not be an easy one because of the immense competition among spinners in the Emerald Isles.
