Top 5 cricketers of the week – December 21st to December 27th

#3 Suranga Lakmal

Lakmal rocked South Africa early

Lakmal is close to 30 years old and has still not attained the peaks that many thought he would much earlier in his career. The man who made his Test debut six years ago, and was considered to be the successor to Lasith Malinga’s legacy, has played only 31 Tests since, picking up 67 wickets at 47.65.

However, on the first and second days of the first Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth, he gave a fine display of his talent, swinging and moving the ball and wrecking the South African top order. Lakmal picked up his first five-wicket haul with figures of 5-63 against a strong South African batting order. Four of his five wickets were of the South African top 5, further demonstrating how well he really bowled.