All-time combined India-Sri Lanka ODI XI

#8 Lasith Malinga

Lasith Malinga's slinging action and tremendous variety make life difficult for the batsmen

The name Lasith Malinga brings to our mind his peculiar and attractive hair style, one of the reasons that make him a crowd favourite. On a more serious note, it evokes countless images of searing toe-crushers that were mercilessly and relentlessly hurled at the batsmen leading to their downfall.

Those missile-like yorkers, delivered with a slinging action, are very hard to pick even for well-set batsmen. As if that is not enough, he also possesses a slower yorker, which is equally deceptive and mightily effective. His judicious use of yorkers keeps the batsmen guessing.

His well-directed slow bouncers can spring a surprise and torment the batsmen. Then, there is the swing too which makes him a deadly proposition. In modern cricket, it is hard to find a pace bowler with greater variety than Malinga or who unleashed yorkers better than the Lankan. His record of 301 wickets in just 204 ODIs at the rate of 1.5 wickets per match demonstrates his extraordinary wicket-taking skills.