Wanindu Hasaranga — Paktia’s Platinum pick, and the best leg-spinner in the draft

The last Platinum pick, and the best of them

Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva was born in Galle on 29 July 1997. He bats right-handed and bowls right-arm leg spin, and he is the all-rounder Paktia built their draft around — taken fifth and last among the five Platinum players, after Muhammad Amir, Moeen Ali, Alex Hales and Johnson Charles, for $100,000.

He is the second name on Paktia’s list, behind Afghan Icon and captain Rahmanullah Gurbaz. He did not play in the first APL season in 2018 — his name appears on none of the five team lists from that season, and in August 2018 he was in Dambulla’s squad for Sri Lanka’s domestic T20 league. The 2026-27 season is his APL debut.

He plays under Gurbaz, with Azhar Mahmood as head coach and Waqar Younis as mentor, in a squad that pairs him with a second frontline wrist-spinner, Noor Ahmad. Two leg-spinners of this quality in one attack is the rarest luxury in T20 cricket.

Hat-tricks on debut, and a World Cup record

Hasaranga’s career has a habit of starting with a hat-trick. On his ODI debut against Zimbabwe at Galle in July 2017 he took one — the youngest bowler ever to take a hat-trick on ODI debut, only the third debutant to do it, and the first leg-spinner. Four years later, at the 2021 T20 World Cup in Sharjah, he took another against South Africa, the first by a Sri Lankan in a T20 World Cup.

He finished that 2021 tournament as its leading wicket-taker, with 16 wickets in eight matches — a record for a single T20 World Cup edition at the time — and he led the bowling at the next World Cup too. On his 24th birthday, in July 2021 against India at Colombo, he took 4 for 9 in four overs, the best bowling spell ever recorded on a birthday in T20 internationals.

His best ODI figures came in his comeback match after six months out with a hamstring injury: 7 for 19 against Zimbabwe at Colombo in January 2024, the fifth-best figures in men’s ODI history and the second-best by a Sri Lankan, after Chaminda Vaas’s 8 for 19. And in the 2022 Asia Cup final against Pakistan in Dubai he made 36 and took 3 for 27, rescuing Sri Lanka from 58 for 5 in a 58-run stand with Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and was named Player of the Tournament.

No APL numbers yet — a debut eight years on

Hasaranga has no APL figures yet. He did not play in 2018, and the 2026-27 season has not started, so there is nothing to fill in until the first ball is bowled on 27 December 2026.

2026-27 figures will be added here once the matches are played.

Wickets in the middle overs, and runs below them

Hasaranga’s job is the one he has done everywhere: bowl four overs through the middle, take wickets when batters are trying to accelerate, and do it without leaking runs. In the UAE, where wrist spin has decided tournament after tournament, that is the skill Paktia paid Platinum money for.

He is not a bowler who only bowls. His 36 in the Asia Cup final came with Sri Lanka 58 for 5, and he bats low enough to finish an innings and high enough to rescue one. With Noor Ahmad spinning from the other end, Gurbaz can attack from both ends at once — and that is the plan the whole Paktia squad is built around.

A new club, a blank record

The format is a double round-robin: five teams, eight league matches each, two against every opponent, and the top four go through to the playoffs. A win is worth two points, and one side goes home after the league stage. Nothing is on the board yet — every team starts on zero, and the first points come after Match 1 on 27 December 2026, when the first ball is bowled at 5:30 PM Afghanistan time (5:00 PM Dubai time) in the UAE. The season ends with the final on Wednesday 20 January 2027.

Paktia are a new club for 2026-27, not a continuation of the 2018 Paktia Panthers, so Hasaranga has no old APL record to defend. His debut comes eight years after the league’s only previous season, in the APL as it returns to the UAE.