Having toured England in 1998 as a 19-year-old, Jayawardene was touted for a long career as a Sri Lankan cricketer, but soon found himself out of play thanks to the emerging talent of Kumar Sangakkara in 2000. His career was again thwarted by the good form of Romesh Kaluwitharana, but since this he has managed to make a few appearances since for the Sri Lankan team. With the Sri Lankan selectors having concerns about Sangakkara's playing ability, Jayawardene was once again called into action against Zimbabwe in April 2004. Since 2004 Jayawardene has played Twenty20 cricket.

Due to Kumar Sangakkara's status as a regular wicketkeeper-batsman, was trouble playing No.3 of the batting order while keeping all day. Sri Lankan selectors felt that they could afford to play a specialist keeper in Test matches. As a result of this, both Sangakkara and Jayawardene have played Test cricket in the same team of late, Sangakkara as a specialist top order batsman and Jayawardene as the specialist keeper down the order.

Jayawardene donned the gloves for Sri Lanka thanks to an injury to Sangakkara in Sri Lanka's 1st Test against Australia on 8 November 2007. In the Test series against England in December, Jayawardene flourished with two vital fifties and nine catches. On the 27 May 2011 Jayawardene scored a patient yet fluent 112 at the SWALEC stadium in Cardiff.

Test centuries

The following table is a summary of the Test centuries scored by Prasanna Jayawardene.

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