Sadanand Vishwanath, Chandrakant Pandit, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan and Bharat Arun. Early international career Arjuna Ranatunga made his test debut on 17 February 1982 against England at the age of 18 in Sri Lanka's first ever test match at the P. Sara Oval. He scored 50 on test debut and also became the first Sri Lankan to score a half century in test cricket. He also shared a 99 run partnership with Ranjan Madugalle for the fourth wicket in Sri Lanka's inaugural test match. He was also working as an insurance broker in his early days of his international career. He made his debut World Cup appearance for Sri Lanka during the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He then featured in Sri Lanka's historical test match against England at Lord's in 1984 which also marked Sri Lanka's first ever test match at Lord's. He along with Asanka Gurusinha became the first pair of Sri Lankan batters to bat out the entire day of a test match for Sri Lanka with an unbroken partnership of 240 runs on a wicketless final day of the match against Pakistan at the P. Sara Oval in 1986 which also eventually led to a draw. Both came on to bat on a decisive fourth day of the test match when Sri Lanka was reeling at 83/3 and the duo endured resistance against the Pakistani bowling attack with the likes of Imran Khan, Abdul Qadir and Wasim Akram. Ranatunga ended up with a career best knock of unbeaten 135 while Asanka remained undefeated on 116 as Sri Lanka posted 323/3 at the end of the play on Day 5. He was a key member of the Sri Lankan side which won its maiden Asia Cup title in 1986. He also top scored for Sri Lanka in the 1986 Asia Cup final against Pakistan scoring 57 runs off just 55 balls to propel Sri Lanka to a comfortable run chase of 192 with 7.4 overs to spare. He was also the leading run scorer of the tournament with an aggregate of 105 runs and was also adjudged as the player of the series in addition to his all-round display in the tournament taking 4 wickets. Captaincy Ranatunga went on to captain the Sri Lanka national cricket team in 1988, taking control of it for the next eleven years, transforming it from a weak, routinely defeated team into a competitive and