Arnold made his
Test debut against
Pakistan on April and his
One day international debut against
South Africa later in the year on 6 November 1997. His test debut came as a blessing in disguise as he came as an injury replacement to
Roshan Mahanama who was injured in a batting session in the nets. He was initially called into the
Sri Lankan reserve squad for the home series against Pakistan in 1997 following his performances in domestic circuit. The then Sri Lankan team head coach
Dav Whatmore had felt that Russel could be utilised well when he plays down the order. During the final of the
2000–01 Sharjah Champions Trophy against India in 2000 at
Sharjah, Arnold helped
Sanath Jayasuriya to post his highest individual score of 189. Sanath and Arnold had a good partnership until Sanath stumped after a brilliant 189. Russel provided good support scoring unbeaten 52 off 62 balls in the match. Sri Lanka eventually won the final by a big margin of 245 runs. He was part of the Sri Lankan team captained by Sanath Jayasuriya which won the
2002 ICC Champions Trophy jointly with India. Arnold's failure in the
2003 Cricket World Cup saw him sidelined for many months as selectors opted to groom the youngsters into the team. However, he fought his way back into the team with a string of good scores in domestic cricket for his club,
Nondescripts. A calm and cool player in a crisis situation, Arnold has dragged Sri Lanka out of many sticky situations. He is highly valued for his gritty qualities and is considered an unselfish team man. He is considered an ideal No. 6; he is a Methodist Christian of
Tamil descent. Arnold has been nicknamed "Rusty" by
Roshan Mahanama and
Pramodya Wickramasinghe, due to it being a very common nickname for the name Russel, and for his batting style as tough and durable, though not really pretty.
Retirement During April 2007 he announced, through team manager
Michael Tissera, that he intended to retire from international cricket after the
2007 ICC Cricket World Cup final, which came as a shock to Sri Lankan cricket. He cited the pressure of too much travel as his reason. He also coached at Barker College, a prestigious private school in Sydney's north. He also was assistant coach to
Deccan Chargers in the
IPL before the team was removed from the competition. In 2018, he was appointed as the tournament director of the
Lanka Premier League by the
Sri Lanka Cricket but the proposed 2018 edition of the LPL was cancelled due to the dissolution of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board. He also played for
Sri Lanka Legends in
2020-21 Road Safety World Series which was captained by
Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sri Lanka Legends became runners up to India Legends in the final. ==Post-retirement career==