Do You Know Ajanta Mendis?

Not many people seem to be interested in the on going Sri Lanka - West Indies series despite it producing some good competitive cricket. The Windies seem to be a rejuvenated side under Chris Gayle, while the Lankans are hitting a decline of sorts.

I didn't watch any of the tests but I did manage to catch the 2nd half of the Windies' innings in yesterday's ODI. Quite a chase it was. It was also one of the more exciting ODI matches I've seen in recent times.

Chanderpaul's 4 and 6 of the last 2 balls of the innings to secure a dramatic 1 wicket win for the Windies was surely the highlight of the match.

But there was something else that I found quite amazing.

That was Sri Lanka's new spinner, Ajanta Mendis.

Did you see that boy?

His Cricinfo profile says "Right arm slow medium", but he is anything but that. Watching him bowl was quite a sight. The boy released off spinners, doosras, leg breaks, googlies, flippers, straighter ones and everything and anything that an off spinner and leg spinner bowl.

I haven't seen anyone bowl the way Mendis did last night. Shahid Afridi bowls the occasional fast offspinner in his spells of leg breaks and googlies, and even Sachin Tendulkar bowls a mixture of everything, but this Mendis boy was different. In fact I felt he was something special.

His debut performance last night was figures of 3-39 off 10. His 3 wickets came of 3 different deliveries - a straighter one with an off spinner's action, a flipper with a leg spinner's action, and a looping off spinner.

His first class record is quite astonishing - 19 matches, 111 wickets at an average of 14.5. His List A record even more so - 20 matches, 40 wickets at an average of 11.5.

Is he the next big thing of Sri Lankan Cricket?

Is he Murali's long term replacement?

Too early to call but the indications from his domestic record and from what I saw last night, there's a high chance that he is.