ODI career Perera made his international debut for Sri Lanka in December 2009, in a late call-up to play in an ODI against
India in
Kolkata. He took five wickets in an ODI against Australia on the same tour. Perera was a member of Sri Lanka's squad for the
2011 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. He was part of the team defeated in the final of the tournament by India, scoring 22 not out off ten deliveries and taking the wicket of
Gautam Gambhir. He was not selected for the
Test series against Pakistan later in the year, being retained only for the ODI and Twenty20 teams, but was recalled to the Test team for the end-of-year
tour of South Africa He played two ODIs on the tour and scored his first half-century in the format—69 not out off 44 balls—to help Sri Lanka to victory in the fourth of the five-match series in
Kimberley. In the 2nd ODI of 2012 series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he done brilliant late-order hitting and became first ever person to take 6 wickets against Pakistan in an ODI - his career best. This performance won him the Man of the Match as well. In the 4th ODI of the same series, he shocked Pakistan by taking a hat-trick and managing a run-out in his maiden over took the wicket of saajid and became first Sri Lankan to register a hat-trick against Pakistan. Perera also has the record for the highest ODI score for Sri Lanka when batting at number 9 position or lower when he scored unbeaten 80 runs. On 5 January 2019, in the second ODI
against New Zealand, Perera scored his first century in ODIs, when he made 140 runs from 74 balls. It was the fastest century against New Zealand in ODIs, coming from 57 balls. Perera also scored thirteen sixes in his innings, the most by a Sri Lankan batsman in an ODI, and the most sixes by a batsman on the losing team in an ODI match.
Test career He was selected in Sri Lanka's Test squad for a series against England. He made his debut in the first Test of the series at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. In an innings defeat, he scored 25 and 20 with the bat and took no wickets. He was not selected for the Test series against Pakistan later in the year, being retained only for the ODI and Twenty20 teams, but was recalled to the Test team for the end-of-year tour of South Africa. He played in all three Tests of the tour, scoring 81 runs and taking five wickets. Perera also contributed to the win
2014 ICC World Twenty20 championship which was Sri Lanka's first World T20I title. In that innings against India in the final, Perera had an unbeaten partnership with
Kumar Sangakkara and hit the winning boundary. He also took a
hat-trick on 12 February 2016 in a
T20I series against
India, which is the fourth overall and first by a Sri Lankan. However, he was gone for nought in batting and Sri Lanka lost the match by 69 runs. He has played the most number of T20I innings(45) for Sri Lanka without scoring a T20I fifty and also holds the record for scoring most number of T20I runs for Sri Lanka without hitting any fifties. He too has the record for the highest individual score for Sri Lanka when batting at number 7 position or lower in
Twenty20 International (49) and also jointly holds the record for Sri Lanka for the highest score batting at number 8 position in T20I along with
Angelo Mathews(35*) In August 2017, he was named in a
World XI team to play three Twenty20 International matches against Pakistan in the
2017 Independence Cup in
Lahore. In the second T20I of the series, Perera took 2 wickets and scored an unbeaten 19-ball 47 runs to lift the World XI to win by 7 wickets. The score highlighted by five huge sixes and Perera won the man of the match award for his match winning all-round performances. In April 2018, he was named in the
Rest of the World XI squad for the
one-off T20I against the
West Indies, to be played at
Lord's on 31 May 2018.
Captaincy In October 2017,
against Pakistan he was named as
captain for Sri Lanka for 3 match T20I series. This announcement came after Sri Lanka Cricket confirmed that the fixture in
Lahore would go ahead as planned and their limited-overs captain,
Upul Tharanga, had pulled out of the match due to security reasons. Ahead of the T20I in Lahore, Cricket Sri Lanka's president Thilanga Sumathipala said that the team was privileged to be in Pakistan and that he would help support the country in hosting more tours.
Najam Sethi, chairman of the PCB, said that this fixture would be the start of international cricket returning to the country, with him expecting every country to play in Pakistan by the end of 2020. Despite all those efforts, Sri Lanka suffered another whitewash and lost the T20I series 3–0. On 29 November 2017, Perera was named as Sri Lanka's captain for the ODI and T20I matches
against India, replacing
Upul Tharanga. The change came due to poor performance and whitewash losses under Tharanga's captaincy. Sri Lanka comfortably won the match by 7 wickets and finished their 12 ODI loss streak as well. Finally, Sri Lanka lost the ODI series 1–2. In the T20I series, Sri Lanka suffered a 3 loss whitewash, by giving 6 consecutive losses under Perera's captaincy.
Post captaincy In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by
Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season. During the 3-match ODI series
against New Zealand, Perera appeared as the rescue man for Sri Lanka. In the first ODI, however he was hammered for 34 runs by
Jimmy Neesham in the penultimate over (6, 6, 6, 6, NB2, 6, 1). Having started the over with figures of 9-0-46-2, Thisara finished with 10-0-80-2. In the second ODI, Perera scored his maiden ODI century, which broke several world records. His century off 57 balls was the fastest against New Zealand. Perera's 13 sixes beat the Sri Lanka record of 11, which had been held by
Sanath Jayasuriya since 1996. Perera thrashed 13 sixes and eight fours on his way to 140 off 74 balls, which is recorded as the joint highest individual score by a Sri Lankan against New Zealand (along with Jayasuriya's 140 in 1994). Despite Perera's onslaught, Sri Lanka lost the match by 21 runs, where he dismissed as the last wicket in 47th over. His 13 sixes is the most sixes by a batsman on the losing team in ODIs. In the third ODI, Perera continued his heroics with a quick 80. New Zealand batted first and posted mighty 364 on the board. Sri Lankan chase started successfully, but wickets at regular intervals slowed the progress. Perera crashing three sixes and seven fours in his 80 runs, but he soon dismissed by a magnificent catch taken by
Martin Guptill. Sri Lanka lost the match by 113 runs and lost the series 3–0. In April 2019, he was named in
Sri Lanka's squad for the
2019 Cricket World Cup. The
International Cricket Council (ICC) named Perera as the key player of Sri Lanka's squad for the tournament.
Retirement On 3 May 2021, Perera announced that he had retired from across all formats of international cricket. It was reported that he retired from international cricket following pay dispute with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board and also reports emerged regarding the intentions of SLC to axe several senior players from the national team in the limited overs matches to nurture and give opportunities to the youngsters. ==Domestic and franchise cricket==