Akalanka Ranasinghe

• Born March 1, 1985 in Pannipitiya, Colombo Sri Lanka

Biographical Information

Akalanka Ranasinghe was a member of Sri Lanka's team in the 2003 Asian U18 Championship. He scored the most runs in the 2015 East Asian Baseball Cup. He was captain of the Sri Lanka team that won the 2017 West Asian Baseball Cup to win their first spot in an Asian Championship. In the 2017 Asian Championship, he had one of their two hits off South Korea's Sung-han Kim in their opener, giving him a 50% chance of the first Asian Championship hit for Sri Lanka. He had two RBI the next day and finished at .222/.417/.222 with a run and two RBI for the tourney. He tied Asanka Lakmal and Krishna Hapurachchi for the team lead in RBI and was second to Hapurachchi in OBP.

In the 2018 Asian Games, he was 2 for 5 with two walks, a hit-by-pitch, three runs and a RBI. The veteran also stole two bases in two tries. In the opening round, he tied Joe Daru for 9th in average, tied Sakai Phraechai for 6th in runs, tied Nalor Gniatou for 5th in OBP and tied Gniatou and Phoomwut Wutthikorn for third in steals. Sri Lanka did not make the second round. He was the first DH for Sri Lanka in an Asian Games. He managed Sri Lanka in the 2019 West Asian Baseball Cup, which they won.