"On the way to become SL's most important player in ODIs": Malinga makes huge prediction about Wellalage's career

Wellalage picked up his maiden five-wicket haul at the senior international level with outstanding figures of 5/40 against India on Tuesday, and Malinga was suitably impressed.

Malinga took to social media immediately after Sri Lanka's clash to praise the efforts of Wellalage and the Sri Lanka great believes that the young spinner has a bright future ahead of him.

"It is fair to say that SL played with 12 players today. That is how good Dunith was," Malinga wrote as quoted by ICC.

"He has got a brilliant head on his young shoulders to go with his all-round skill set."

"I believe he is on his way to becoming the most important player for SL in ODIs for the next decade," he concluded.

https://twitter.com/malinga_ninety9/status/1701655525132492900

While Wellalage has only played 13 ODIs for his country thus far, the left-armer looks set to play a major role in Sri Lanka's ICC Men's Cricket World Cup campaign that commences in India next month.

Wellalage first showed his class by finishing as the leading wicket-taker at last year's ICC U19 Mens Cricket World Cup with 17 scalps at an average of 13.58.

The youngster also delivered solid performances with the bat. In six matches, he scored 264 runs at an average of 44.00 and a strike rate of 70. He scored a century and a half-century, with the best score of 113. He was SL's leading run-scorer in the tournament and overall seventh.

The 20-year-old built on that promise by collecting the big wickets of Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Hardik Pandya during his breakout spell at the Asia Cup.

Malinga wasn't the only international star to be impressed by Wellalage's performance, with a host of other big names also taking to social media to share their thoughts.

While Sri Lanka failed to chase down India's total of 213, Wellalage capped off an excellent all-round performance by contributing 42* with the bat and picking up the Player of the Match award.

Coming to the match, India elected to bat first and an 80-run partnership between skipper Rohit Sharma (53 in 48 balls, seven fours and three sixes) and Shubman Gill (19) helped lay a foundation for a big score.

But what followed was a spin assault by the duo of Dunith Wellalage and Charith Asalanka. Baring a 63-run stand for the fourth wicket between KL Rahul and (39 in 44 balls with two fours) and Ishan Kishan (33 in 61 balls with a four and six), nothing else stood out for India later. Axar (26) though made sure India crossed the 200-run mark before being bundled out for 213 in 49.1 overs.

Wellalage (5/40) and Asalanka (4/18) were the pick of the bowlers for Lanka.

In the chase of 214, SL was off to a bad start and eventually reduced to 99/6 by Jasprit Bumrah (2/30), Mohammed Siraj (1/17) and Kuldeep (4/43).

A stand between Dhananjaya de Silva (41 in 66 balls) and Wellalage threatened to steal the show and the match from India, but Indian bowlers removed the tail just in time to make sure that Wellalage (42* in 46 balls with three fours and a six) was left stranded. SL was bundled out for 172 in 41.3 overs.

Dunith took home the 'Player of the Match' award and India reached the final. (ANI)