Rangana Herath - 400 wickets young

                                                                Rotund, slightly pot-bellied, and with a left-arm that delivers magic time and again. Rangana Herath has written himself into the history books in the simplest, yet most endearing way, becoming the first ever left-arm spinner to take 400 Test wickets. Herath started off at the age of six, doing everything possible on the cricket field. He bowled fast, loved to bat, and tried a bit of spin as well. Finally, when playing Under-15 cricket, Herath was asked to focus on spin by one Mr. Lal Dinapurna. The foundation for a sleeping giant who would later take on, and often conquer, the world had been laid.                               

A decade ago, one question bothered all Sri Lankan fans. What is in store after Murali? Rangana Herath put the doubts to rest. Since his comeback to the side in 2009, the left-armer has taken 369 wickets in 71 Tests at 26, and ensured Sri Lanka always had a storming wicket-taker to call upon.

Herath has been Sri Lanka's main match winner since July 2009, and he proved that by helping his side script a famous win, taking 11 wickets as Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in Abu Dhabi by 21 runs. He took six wickets in the second innings including last man Mohammad Abbas to complete 400 Test wickets, becoming the second Sri Lankan to do so.

In this candid interview, the 39-year-old opens up on the joy of claiming 400 Test wickets, missing out on a Test hundred, scripting some of Sri Lanka's famous wins overseas, his dodgy knees and lots more.

400

How satisfying is it to become the second Sri Lankan to take 400 Test wickets?

I am really satisfied that I became the first left-arm spinner to take 400 Test wickets. It is a special achievement. People tend to give up the sport when they get dropped. They feel dejected. Thankfully, it never happened to me. I always wanted to get back there and play cricket.

I started playing Test cricket at the age of 21. Then I was dropped in 2000. I thought if I am good enough to play Test cricket at the age of 21 that means I have some talent. If I wasn't good enough, they wouldn't have played me at the age of 21. So I was pretty confident that my time will come.

These things you can't achieve on your own and I am forever grateful to all my teammates, coaches, board officials, the fans and my family for backing me all the way. This was possible because all of these people supported me.

There was quite a bit of criticism when the team was losing not too long ago. Was that the toughest period for the team?

I have played since 1999 and I have seen both good and bad times. There was a time, soon after we had won the World Cup (1996), people wanted us to win every single match. Then I remember when we won the World T20 in 2014, it was the same sort of expectations.

In recent times, I felt that people were too distraught. We had a few issues. The team was struggling with injuries and stuff, we had lost senior players and we were continuously losing. People want us to win and I can understand how disappointed they were and they just expressed their feelings. What I have experienced all these years is that any side goes through these tough patches. However, by criticizing the players or by running them down, you are not going to see the team doing well. We need the blessings of our fans for us to move forward. Everyone has to come together and back us.

All Sri Lankan captains whether it be Jayasuriya, Sangakkara, or Chandimal... All of them hail you as a wonderful team man.

Well, cricket is a great sport. We have to respect the sport. Then we should be grateful to be part of this superb team called Sri Lanka. We represent 21 million people. Individually, you may have regrets but in the end what matters is your team. It doesn't matter how many wickets you have taken, but how many matches you have won.