Navin Kavikara

Navin Kavikara is one of Sri Lankan cricket's most reliable left-arm spinners, playing for Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club in domestic cricket.

The tweaker has taken over 200 wickets with an average a tick over 23 with 14 five-wicket bags and 3 ten-wicket match hauls in his 40 first-class matches. Kavikara has also excelled in both white-ball formats, too, with career averages of 20.92 and 22.10 in List A and T20 cricket, respectively.

Kavikara's first-class career started in 2013/14 when he played for Badureliya (following his List A debut for Lankans, back in 2011/12). He only managed 4 wickets at 69.75, before losing his place. A few years on, he re-joined Lankans and set domestic cricket alight, taking 49 wickets at 19.75.

He hasn't looked back, and in recent times has starred for Sri Lanka Navy Sports Club to reinforce his status as one of Sri Lanka's leading domestic left-arm spinners.

Kavikara’s journey though, began at school level, when he made the Sri Lankan Schools and Under-19s in 2007/08. He played 2 Test Match and 14 ODI’s for the latter, including 5 games in the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2018 (in a side that also featured Angelo Matthews, Kusal Perera, Tissara Perera, Sachith Pathirana, Lahiru Thirimanne, and Dinesh Chandimal), taking 8 wickets at 18.37.

During the opening Test against India, he can lay claim to dismissing Virat Kohli in both innings. He also took the wickets of Saurabh Tiwary, Abhinav Mukund, and Ravindra Jadeja during these two matches.

The talented left-arm spinner, who is known to be a useful bat in the lower order, has also spent five seasons playing in the UK - two stints in Yorkshire (2018-19) followed by three post COVID in Buckinghamshire (2022-24).

During his two-season stint in the Yorkshire Premier League North, Kavikara took 94 wickets at 19.28 and scored 619 runs at 16.29. He has continued his exploits in the Home Counties Premier League. In all forms of cricket for Great Brickhill, he has racked up 1,299 runs at 32.48 and 172 wickets at 12.08.

Given his success, it's no wonder he's set to return for another stint with Great Brickhill in 2025.