Akila Dananjaya

Mahamarakkala Kurukulasooriya Patabendige Akila Dananjaya Perera (born 4 October 1993 in Panadura, Western Province), or Akila Dananjaya, is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer, who plays limited over cricket.

The son of a carpenter from Panadura, Dananjaya studied at Mahanama Vidyalaya, Panadura.

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.

In the 2013 IPL auctions, Dananjaya was sold to the Chennai Super Kings for his base price of $20,000.

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 net performance.

This in turn led to a place in the final squad for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20. He made his debut international appearance at the age of 18 against New Zealand at Pallekele in a pool match of World Twenty20.

He was hit on the face by a full-blooded drive from New Zealand opener Rob Nicol, with the ball going through his hands to strike the left side of his face. X-rays and MRI scans revealed that he had suffered a fracture on his left cheek bone as a result of the blow and did not played in the pool match against West Indies.