T20I wicket. His bowling average stood as high as whopping eye watering 65.75 when he was into two-and-a-half-years into his test career. He had his first breakthrough test series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates where he ended up taking 12 wickets on the pitches which didn't quite suit well for the seamers to cash in. His bowling average slightly improved after picking a total of 19 wickets against Pakistan and Bangladesh at the start of 2014. He was one of the members of the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 triumph although he didn't play in any of the matches. He was fined 30 percent of his match fees for bowling two successive beamers at Jos Buttler during the 50th over of the group stage match between Sri Lanka and England at the 2015 Cricket World Cup which also caused match referee David Boon to interrupt and impose sanctions on him calling it as dangerous and unfair bowling. Lakmal is also the first cricketer from Hambantota District to represent the national cricket team of Sri Lanka. Become strike bowler in team During first Test against South Africa, Lakmal bagged his maiden five-wicket haul, becoming the second Sri Lankan pacer Chanaka Welagedara to take a fifer against South Africa in South Africa. However, Sri Lanka lost the match by 206 runs. Though Sri Lanka lost all three Test matches, Lakmal showed best bowling figures throughout the series. He is the highest wicket-taker for Sri Lanka in the series with 12 wickets at an average of 30.83. He insisted that the test tour of South Africa in 2016-17 was his first real success in test cricket and also revealed that he had himself feared for test cricket prior to the test tour of South Africa in 2016–17. He was also part of the Sri Lankan team at the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. He ran through Indian batting lineup in the first test match at Kolkata in November 2017, where he delivered a dramatic spell of 4/26 in India's first innings. At one point, he recorded 3/0 in a six over spell with all six overs being maiden overs which initially reduced India to 17/3 in a rain marred contest. He felt discomfort on the field during the test match at Delhi due to the air pollution and also vomited in the field during India's first innings. On 10 December 2017, in the