Resolute Herath stretches cricketing mortality, again

When the grey hairs bloom and the joints start creaking, a barren spell takes on a little more meaning than before. In the last 18 months of his career, no one has known this truth of mortality better than Rangana Herath. As innings figures like 1 for 99, 1 for 154 and 1 for 89 begin to stack up, the whispers start as well. "Is Herath too old now?" "Is the fizz gone from his fingers?" "His knees will only get worse from here on."

Herath's craft has always been subtle. Sometimes his cricket slides too low. He doesn't bowl batsmen around legs, or pull rabbits from top hats, so when the dry spells come, and the ball does little for him, Herath is an easy man to doubt. He had been a miser in the first innings of this Test, while Tharindu Kaushal made headway at the other end. But his figures said 0 for 67, so the whispers grew a little. "The next Test is Kumar Sangakkara's last. Should Herath quietly give it up as well?"

Yet, as is often the case with Herath, these whispers have no malice. Whatever his most recent match analysis, you can never bring yourself to resent him. Somewhere in the memory, his 2011 charge to win a match in Durban still plays out. In bus halts across the country, his Chittagong humbling of New Zealand is spoken of. But maybe you need his fingers to twitch with magic again for the doubts to fade into insignificance. You need him sending batsmen back in a perahera, to remember his iron will. Because Herath, with his heart that beats like a bass drum, is also an easy man to love.

He was easy to love late on day three, when in his second over, struck KL Rahul's pad dead in front. Herath had 264 Test wickets by then. He has won entire series for Sri Lanka, virtually on his own. Yet he maintains a ceremonial job at his bank, and when all this ends, he may go back to filling out accounts forms. Rahul, with a Test average of 23.66, but screeds of domestic runs and now a profile in India, has an IPL contract. Forget Virat Kohli, three Tests in, even Rahul's earnings are maybe triple what Herath gets in a year.

Herath was easy to love on the fourth morning, when he dismissed Ishant Sharma, who has had a long run in the India team despite many long, fruitless days. When Herath had a lean spell against Pakistan in June, he was axed for the decider in Pallekele - no heed given to his record, no chance granted to rediscover form.

He was easy to love when he floated one in at Rohit Sharma, then had it jive past his outside edge to move the bail at the top of off stump. Rohit has a universe of talent, it is believed, but is so far burning up in the Test atmosphere. Herath has just a few molecules of ability, but has stretched and tugged and kneaded at the raw material until the career he has built rivals that of any other spinner that has played in this decade.

Herath was loved when he weaved one past an advancing Wriddhiman Saha, who at 30 is getting the long stretch in the Test team, having been long-nurtured within India's system. When a Kumar Sangakkara phone call found Herath at 31, he had resorted to playing club cricket in England, to make some semblance of a living from his sport. R Ashwin is an orthodox spinner, but his type commands substantial respect in India. Beyond the Palk Strait, Herath has seen the mystery bowlers promoted ahead of him. Ajinkya Rahane, whose dismissal brought the biggest roar from Herath, had to wait for greats to retire from the Test team to get his chance. But he didn't wait nearly as long as Herath did for Muttiah Muralitharan.

Most of all, Herath is easy to love because he has borne all this with good humour, without obvious complaint. When he speaks of the axe at the selectors' hands, he does so with a smile. "It's happened to me so many times, being dropped is my bread and butter," he said of his recent omission against Pakistan. "Being dropped is nothing new, but I'm confident of things that I can do, because I've done those things in the past. That self-belief keeps me going."

In the past 15 years of Sri Lankan cricket, Murali has embodied the island's talent. In Mahela Jayawardene, its joyful innovation has been borne out. But in backs-to-the-wall scraps against other teams, and now the war on his public perception, no one has had Herath's will in a fight.

In 18 unbroken overs, all the wicketless balls have been forgotten. Herath will know better than anyone that the praise doesn't last forever. He will know best of all, he will have to fight his way back again, on another day, in another place, with another spell like this. Maybe then we will all remember why we love him again.