Kusal Mendis played just one match for Gujarat Titans in IPL 2025.
Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batter Kusal Mendis produced a splendid display as he scored a century in the third ODI against Bangladesh in Pallekele on Tuesday.
This is Kusal Mendis’ sixth century in ODIs and his knock helped Sri Lanka post 285/7 from 50 overs after opting to bat first.
Kusal Mendis thus continued his recent impressive form in international cricket. He scored 84 runs in the first innings of the second Test against Bangladesh recently, and followed it up with knocks of 45 and 56 in the first two ODIs.
At the time of writing this report, Bangladesh were 40/2 in the eighth over while looking to chase down a total of 286. Parvez Hossain Emon and Towhid Hridoy were the unbeaten batters. Bangladesh had lost Tanzid Hasan Tamim and Najmul Hossain Shanto early on in the powerplay.
NOT
–
SOM
–
WEY
–
ESM
–
BAN
–
ESM
–
WEY
–
SPE
–
SPE
–
BAN
–
WEY
–
BAN
–
ESM
–
SPE
–
TWI
–
SPE
–
ESM
–
WEY
–
WEY
–
TWI
–
ESM
–
TWI
–
GUG
197/9
NVR
41/5
CCC
–
GTC
–
BCC
–
91YC
–
NAJC
–
GUG
–
PCR
–
BCC
–
GUJCC
–
KZK
–
RTZ
–
KGC
–
TCC
–
JJ
–
ZIM
–
NZ
–
ASS
128/10
BDS
–
BAD
–
MAK
–
BAD
–
ASS
–
SGT
–
BDS
–
WIU19-W
–
USAU19-W
–
WIU19-W
–
USAU19-W
–
BRB-W
–
SUR-W
–
AAC
–
PNC
–
IAC
–
WIC
–
Earlier in the match, apart from Kusal Mendis, skipper Charith Asalanka (58) and opener Pathum Nissanka (35) made crucial contributions with the bat.
The three-match ODI series is currently level 1-1. Sri Lanka won the first ODI by 77 runs whereas Bangladesh clinched a 16-run win in the second ODI.
Earlier this year, the 30-year-old turned up for Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL 2025 after he was named as a replacement for England’s Jos Buttler.
He played just one match, the Eliminator against Mumbai (MI), which the Shubman Gill-led side lost. In that match, Kusal Mendis scored 20 runs from 10 balls, hitting one four and two sixes. However, despite being named as a replacement, Kusal Mendis cannot be retained by Gujarat Titans ahead of IPL 2026 even if they wanted to.
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It was during the one-week suspension of IPL 2025 when Gujarat Titans had announced Kusal Mendis as replacement for Jos Buttler. Kusal Mendis, however, was only a temporary replacement for Jos Buttler, who had to miss the IPL 2025 playoffs due to international commitments with England.
This also meant that Kusal Mendis wasn’t able to play for Gujarat Titans till May 26, which was a day after their final league stage match. Jos Buttler, as a result, ended up playing all the league stage matches before flying back home.
After the IPL was suspended for a week following the India-Pakistan political tensions, several overseas players including Mitchell Starc, Moeen Ali and Jake Fraser-McGurk pulled out of the remainder of the tournament. This meant that IPL franchises were allowed to replace those players with “temporary replacements” for the rest of the season.
“Given the non-availability of certain foreign players due to national commitments or personal reasons or any injury or illness, Temporary Replacement Players will be allowed until the conclusion of this tournament,” the IPL had said in a statement.
“This decision is subject to the condition that the Temporary Replacement players taken from this point forward will not be eligible for retention in the following year. Temporary Replacement players will have to register for the IPL Player Auction 2026,” the statement added.
Gujarat Titans lost to Mumbai Indians by 20 runs in the Eliminator of IPL 2025, which meant that the former champions’ campaign came to an end. Gujarat Titans had finished third in the IPL 2025 standings with 18 points from 14 matches.
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