Rangana Herath is an orthodox left-arm spinner who has taken over from Muttiah Muralitharan as Sri Lanka's main wicket-taking bowler in Tests. As a left-arm spinner, his strengths are his accuracy and his ability to bowl long spells, but to that he has added a 'mystery' ball, a delivery that is quicker and darts back into the right-hander.

In his early years, he was seen as a support act to Muralitharan, though he had his moments to savour: against Pakistan in 2009, his 4 for 15 got Sri Lanka an improbable win, as Pakistan were bundled out for 117 chasing 168. Most of the time during that period, though, his role was to bowl long spells block the runs and build pressure on the batsmen, allowing Murali to work his magic from the other end.