Background
The son of a carpenter from Panadura, Dananjaya is another installment of Sri Lanka"s long line of unorthodox spinners.
The son of a carpenter from Panadura, Dananjaya is another installment of Sri Lanka"s long line of unorthodox spinners.
Officially a left-hand batsman and an off-break bowler, he is said to have seven variations, including the leg-break, googly, carrom ball, doosra and his stock off-spinner that had impressed national team captain Mahela Jayawardene so much in the nets as to make Jayawardene request him to be fast-tracked into the national squad. Dhananjaya had at that point played no first-class, List A, T20 or even U-19 cricket. This in turn led to controversy as his selection was questioned by the media on the basis of a Netto performance.
He was selected to play for Wayamba United in the inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League.
In only his second match for the franchise, he took 3-18 against Nagenahira Nagas, consistently disturbing the batsmen with his flight, googly and other variations. This in turn led to a place in the final squad for the 2012 Interstate Commerce Commission World Twenty20.
In the 2013 IPL auctions, Dananjaya was sold to the Chennai Super Kings for his base price of $20,000.