Sri Lanka opener Lahiru Udara turned the opening day of the second Test against West Indies in North Sound, Antigua, into a personal record carnival. Batting first up for his side, the right handed wicketkeeper batter smashed 188 runs off 248 balls in the first innings, striking at 75.81, and peppered the boundary with 21 fours and 5 towering sixes. By the time he walked back to the pavilion, he had erased a 22 year old record held by Sri Lankan great Sanath Jayasuriya and rewritten another that had stood for more than a decade.
The First Sri Lankan Opener With Five Sixes
Playing only his third Test match at the age of 32, Udara achieved something no Sri Lankan opener had managed before him in the format's long history in the country. He became the first opening batter from Sri Lanka to hit five sixes in a single Test innings. The previous mark belonged to Sanath Jayasuriya, who during his more than two decade long international career struck four sixes as an opener on two separate occasions but never crossed that tally in one innings. Udara's five sixes pushed that old record into the history books and showed that fearless, high risk hitting has become a weapon for opening batters too in the modern format, not just for players coming in lower down the order.
Where Jayasuriya And Other Sri Lankan Openers Stood
Jayasuriya first hit four sixes in an innings back in 2001, smashing 89 runs off 56 balls against Bangladesh at the SSC ground in Colombo. He repeated the feat in 2004 during his marathon 253 run innings against Pakistan in Faisalabad, an innings still remembered as one of his finest. He also struck three sixes on two further occasions, once while scoring 157 against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2004, and again while making 73 against South Africa at the PSS ground in Colombo in 2006. Among other Sri Lankan openers, Michael Vandort hit three sixes during his 117 run innings against Bangladesh in 2007, and Oshada Fernando struck three sixes while scoring 50 against Pakistan in Galle in 2022. None of them, however, could match Udara, whose five sixes now stand above all of them as the new benchmark for the position.
Karunaratne's Record Falls Too
Udara's innings was not only about the six hitting. He also became the Sri Lankan opener with the highest individual score in a Test against West Indies, surpassing former captain Dimuth Karunaratne in the process. Karunaratne had scored 186 runs off 354 balls in the first innings of the Galle Test during West Indies' tour of Sri Lanka in October 2015, an innings built on patience rather than power. Udara's 188 runs broke that 11 year old record as well, doing it at a far quicker pace. He was dismissed as Sri Lanka's fourth wicket on the opening day itself, but by then he had already written his name twice into the record books in the space of a single innings.
The World Record Still Belongs To Yashasvi Jaiswal
The global record for the most sixes by an opener in a single Test innings still rests with India's Yashasvi Jaiswal. The Mumbai left hander began his Test career against West Indies in July 2023. In February 2024, playing the second innings of the Rajkot Test against England, Jaiswal scored an unbeaten 214 and hit a record 12 sixes in that innings, a mark that remains untouched by any opener anywhere in the world, including Udara.
Only Two Other Openers Have Crossed Ten Sixes
Apart from Jaiswal, only two other openers in the world have hit more than ten sixes in a single Test innings. Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden struck 11 sixes during his 380 run innings against Zimbabwe at the WACA in Perth in 2003, an innings that once stood among the highest individual scores in Test history. Former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum also hit 11 sixes while scoring 202 against Pakistan in Sharjah in November 2014, in what was one of the fastest double centuries the format has seen.
Indian Batters Dominate The List
West Indies batter Chris Gayle also features prominently on this list, having hit 9 sixes during his 333 run innings against Sri Lanka in Galle in 2010, and 7 sixes while scoring 197 against New Zealand in Napier in 2008. Indian batters, though, have consistently dominated this particular record list over the years. Navjot Singh Sidhu struck 8 sixes during his 124 run innings against Sri Lanka in Lucknow in 1994. Mayank Agarwal hit 8 sixes while scoring 243 against Bangladesh in Indore in 2019. Virender Sehwag struck 7 sixes during his famous 293 run innings against Sri Lanka at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in 2009. Rohit Sharma hit 7 sixes during his 127 run innings against South Africa in Visakhapatnam in 2019, and Yashasvi Jaiswal also hit 7 sixes during his 209 run innings against England, also played in Visakhapatnam.
Udara's fearless, record breaking innings has put Sri Lanka in a strong position in the match, and it has also shown that he has the game and the temperament to set even bigger landmarks in modern Test cricket. If he can back up this performance in the innings and matches to come, he could well become a new face of Sri Lankan opening batting for years ahead.
