Thisara Perera

India · Left-arm orthodox · All-rounder

NLTC Perera is a Sri Lanka Cricket all-rounder whose primary format is the One-Day International. Across 400 career matches, he has scored 5,752 runs at a strike rate of 128.94 and taken 330 wickets at an economy of 6.64, a combination that few players in world cricket can match for sheer breadth. His 202 appearances for Sri Lanka dwarf his franchise commitments, though he has been a regular presence in the BPL, LPL and IPL too. On recent form, Perera's most eye-catching moment came on 3 January 2025, when he struck an unbeaten 103 off 60 balls against Khulna Tigers in the Bangladesh Premier League.

Matches

Runs

Wickets

Bat Avg

21.9

Bowl Avg

33.0

2026 Season Context

Current team & role

Sunrisers Hyderabad · All-Rounder

Recent form

Perera's most recent ten appearances have all come in the 2025 BPL, highlighted by an unbeaten 103 off 60 balls against Khulna Tigers on 3 January 2025, though his other batting contributions in the s

Strongest format

One-Day International — In 157 ODIs, Perera has taken 164 wickets at an economy of 5.89, his lowest across any competition, and he has scored 2,233 runs at a strike rate of 1

Career stats overview

6 Test · 157 ODI · 237 T20I appearances — spanning 2009 to present.

Test

6 matches

203

Runs scored

Wickets taken

Where his legacy was forged — the format that rewards patience and precision.

ODI

157 matches

2,233

Runs scored

164

Wickets taken

The middle-overs architect — a decade of white-ball consistency.

T20I

237 matches

3,316

Runs scored

155

Wickets taken

Brief but impactful — quality over volume in the shortest format.

Format-aware deep dive

Where he dominates

Home record

215

wickets

Average 21.4 on Indian soil — better than any active spinner of the era.

Fourth-innings force

112

wickets

A third of his Test wickets come on day five, when bowlers decide outcomes.

Lower-order resilience

38.4

batting avg

At No.7 his average beats every Indian specialist in that slot since 2015.

Elite opposition

198

wkts in 48 M

Combined record vs Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa.

Consistency

five-wicket hauls

Third-most by any Indian bowler since his Test debut.

WTC presence

finals played

In the conversation every cycle. Central to this India red-ball side.

Career threads

Beyond the numbers

400 matches, 330 wickets, 5,752 runs

Perera is a genuine all-format all-rounder who has contributed with both bat and ball across 400 career appearances. His 330 wickets at a bowling average of 33.03 sit alongside 5,752 runs at a strike rate of 128.94, underlining the breadth of his value across all three formats.

ODIs are his primary home: 157 matches, 164 wickets

In 157 One-Day Internationals, Perera has claimed 164 wickets at an economy of 5.89, comfortably his most parsimonious across formats. He has also contributed 2,233 runs at a strike rate of 112.78, making him a meaningful lower-order option with the bat as well.

Sher-e-Bangla is his most productive ground

Across 63 matches at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, Perera averages 29.39 with the bat at a strike rate of 146.59, and has taken 74 wickets. No venue in the data set comes close to those combined returns.

Pakistan is his most-wicketed opponent: 59 dismissals

In 38 matches against Pakistan, Perera has taken 59 wickets at an economy of 5.65, his best economy rate against any major opponent. He has also scored 561 runs in those fixtures, making it comfortably his most productive head-to-head pairing.

BPL T20 form: one century among mixed returns in 2025

Playing for Sylhet Strikers in the 2025 Bangladesh Premier League, Perera struck an unbeaten 103 off 60 balls against Khulna Tigers on 3 January. The surrounding matches were more subdued, with several single-figure scores, reflecting the boom-or-bust nature of his lower-order T20 batting.

Head-to-head

Vs opponents

Career totals broken down by the teams NLTC Perera has faced most often, heat-scaled by output.

Pakistan

Matches: 38
Runs: 561
Wickets: 59

India

Matches: 36
Runs: 447
Wickets: 44

South Africa

Matches: 31
Runs: 601
Wickets: 26

Bangladesh

Matches: 21
Runs: 493
Wickets: 23

New Zealand

Matches: 20
Runs: 457
Wickets: 14

Australia

Matches: 19
Runs: 201
Wickets: 26

England

Matches: 19
Runs: 441
Wickets: 12

West Indies

Matches: 13
Runs: 273
Wickets: 7

Grounds played at

Home & away grounds

The venues where NLTC Perera has turned out most often.

Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka

Matches: 63
Runs: 1,205
Wickets: 74

R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

Matches: 35
Runs: 502
Wickets: 31

Pallekele International Cricket Stadium

Matches: 32
Runs: 648
Wickets: 30

Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Sooriyawewa

Matches: 25
Runs: 583
Wickets: 30

Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram

Matches: 20
Runs: 348
Wickets: 20

Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium

Matches: 14
Runs: 239
Wickets: 16

R.Premadasa Stadium

Matches: 10
Runs: 189
Wickets: 1

Sylhet International Cricket Stadium

Matches: 10
Runs: 131
Wickets: 6

Official profile

Elsewhere on the web

ESPNcricinfo

NLTC Perera's profile

Historical aggregates derived from Cricsheet (cricsheet.org) under ODC-BY licence. 2001/02–2026 IPL seasons. Batting average uses dismissals as the denominator; bowler wickets are credited only for bowler-kind dismissals (bowled, caught, lbw, caught-and-bowled, stumped, hit wicket). Venue and opposition splits are rebuilt after every ingest from the Cricsheet archive.

Photo credits (1)

Thisara Perera — photo by Amal316, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source