Pathum Nissanka struggle story: Sri Lankan cricket team’s star player Pathum Nissanka is making waves in the ICC T20 World Cup.

New Delhi: Now the Super-8 round of ICC T20 World Cup 2026 is about to start. The host Sri Lankan team has also reached the Super-8. Before the tournament, the Sri Lankan team was considered very weak, but some players of the team performed strongly in the group stage, due to which Sri Lanka reached the Super-8. The team’s opener batsman Pathum Nissanka played an important role in taking the Sri Lankan team to this stage, who played brilliantly in a difficult match against Australia and scored a brilliant century in that match.

He has become only the second player after Mahela Jayawardene to score a double century for Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup. Not only in T20 format, Nissanka has also done wonders in ODI. Nissanka has achieved the feat of scoring a double century in ODI for Sri Lanka. This is the reason why today he is being called the run machine of the Sri Lankan team, but this 27 year old player has had to struggle a lot to reach here. Let us tell you that Nissanka comes from a very poor family, but his parents dreamed of making their son a cricketer, for which Nissanka also sacrificed his life.

Nissanka’s childhood was spent in poverty.

Pathum Nissanka’s father’s name is Sunil Nissanka. He used to work as an ordinary ground boy in Galle. His job was to take care of the grounds. His financial condition was so weak that it was difficult for his family to survive, but he never let Pathum’s love for cricket be suppressed. When Pathum was young, his father did not have money to buy him a good cricket kit. Because life was spent in poverty.

Like his father, Pathum’s mother also struggled a lot. It was difficult to run a household with my father’s earnings. In such a situation, to increase the income of his mother’s family, he worked as a seller of flowers and incense sticks outside the Kalutara temple near Galle. Irrespective of the sun and rain, she used to sit outside the temple for hours to earn some extra money for Pathum’s diet and sports expenses.

How is Pathum Nissanka’s career?

Pathum Nissanka made his debut for Sri Lanka in the year 2021. Nissanka has so far appeared in a total of 18 Tests, 77 ODIs and 87 T20 matches for Sri Lanka. In Test cricket, he has scored 1305 runs at an average of 45 with the help of 4 centuries and 7 half-centuries. His highest score in Test cricket is 187 runs. Apart from this, he has scored a total of 2920 runs so far.

In ODI format, Nissanka has scored runs at an average of 40.55. He has 18 half-centuries and 7 centuries in his name in this format. Nissanka’s highest score in this format is 210 runs, which he made against Afghanistan. He is the first player to score a double century in ODI for Sri Lanka. Apart from this, he has scored 2574 runs in T20, which includes 18 fifties and 2 centuries.