Making his Test debut in November 1990 just after his 20th birthday, Atapattu's first six
innings yielded five
ducks and a 1, and he was the first Sri Lankan batsman to be dismissed for a pair on debut. After this difficult start in his first three matches, he did not score above 29 in his next 11 innings, before hitting his first Test
century in his 10th match, against
India, seven years after his debut. He has 22
Test-match career ducks and four
pairs (two ducks in a single Test), both records for a top-order batsman. He made his One-Day International debut against India at
Nagpur. He was appointed as captain of the one-day team in April 2003. He registered his highest Test score of 249 against Zimbabwe in 2004, sharing a 438-run partnership with
Kumar Sangakkara for the second wicket. Atapattu scored a century in the first innings of the Second Test during his team's
tour of Australia in 2004 in
Cairns, Queensland. His third century in five innings, he made 133. A "determin[ed]" Atapattu,
ESPNcricinfo wrote, "pull[ed] authoritatively ... tuck[ed] in neatly behind the ball." He finished the two-match series scoring 156 runs at an
average of 39.00 and was the top-scorer for his team. Atapattu was a skilful
fielder with an accurate throw. A report prepared by ESPNcricinfo in late 2005 showed that since the
1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the second highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the seventh-highest success rate. He was controversially left out of the squad for the
2007 Cricket World Cup, and as a result, asked for his removal from the list of
Sri Lanka contracted players. Atapattu was to miss the 2007–08 tour of Australia, but was added to the squad after the intervention of Sri Lankan Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge. Atapattu played solidly in the First Test, but subsequently angrily labelled the selectors: "A set of
muppets, basically, headed by a joker," at a post-stumps press conference. After Sri Lanka lost the series 2–0, Atapattu announced his international retirement after the second Test at
Hobart. He finished with 5,502 Test runs at an average of 39.02 in 90 Tests with a One-day International average of 37.57 after hitting 8,529 runs in 268 matches. Atapattu scored six double centuries and sixteen centuries in his Test cricket career. He has scored centuries against all Test-playing nations.
International centuries Atapattu scored his first test century in 1997, seven year after his debut, against India, and in that cricket match he made 108 runs as the match was played at the
Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in
Mohali. His highest Test score of 249 came against
Zimbabwe in 2004 at
Bulawayo. Atapattu scored his first ODI century in 1997 when he scored 118 in 2-run victory against India at the
R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. At
Lord's in 1998, Atapattu scored 132
not out against
England, his highest score in this format of the game. His innings of 111 against
Pakistan in 2004 was his last ODI century. == Coaching career ==