Injury, memes before MVP show - Kumara story

SRI LANKA's modern pacers have a thing about them. They can bowl serious heat (150kmph heat) but they don't have the arrogance or the swagger to go with it. If pacers from other nations readily sign up for a staring contest with the batters, the ones from the Island Nation like to do it their way. They are more likely to gift soft, cuddly toys as a means of appeasement.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

With Dushmantha Chameera, Dilshan Madushanka and Matheesha Pathirana also in the mix, these are heady days for the country's pace factory. When on song when admittedly does a lot of the heavy lifting-Lahiru Kumara is the spearhead of this factory, a totem.

On Thursday, the 26-year-old, whose simple action belies his heat, broke England's spine with the wickets of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone to return with figures of 3/35 in seven overs. It was liquid Kumara, a spell totally built in his image. Fast, erratic but on point when he hit the right notes. On the field, he even dived over a ball and almost injured himself in the process. Injury is of course one reason why Kumara has never lived up to his true potential. (That he has shown a laissez-faire attitude to fitness also hasn't helped. The selectors had dropped him from a Zimbabwe series last year because he had failed a skin folds test).