A right-arm fast bowler, Suranga Lakmal was first spotted by Sri Lanka Cricket's fast bowling coaches while still a student at Debarawewa Central. They closely monitored his progress to Richmond College and then to the Tamil Union team whom he represents in domestic cricket. What impressed the coaches about Lakmal was his height and ability to get bounce and swing at a tender age. Despite his natural ability, Lakmal had one big deficiency in that he lacked the stamina to bowl long spells and on occasions he did, he regularly fell ill. The lack of nutrition was quite common with fast bowlers coming from outside Colombo and soon after Lakmal was inducted into the academy, the coaches worked on developing his stamina. Good performances with Sri Lanka A saw him break into the national ODI side. He was one of three players marked for the future by Chandika Hathurusingha in 2008 when he coached the A side