Kumar Sangakkara is a left-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper. Sangakkara started his career as a batmsan but subsequently became a wicket-keeper also. His keeping has developed to such an extent that he was once considered, by the LG ICC Test ratings, the best wicket-keeping batsman in the world. In 2006 however he gave the gloves to Prasanna Jayawardene in Tests and has since played as a specialist batsman. He remains Sri Lanka's wicket-keeper in One-Day International cricket.

Sangakkara likes to hit the ball square of the wicket on the off-side and once making a century he more often than not passes 150 in Test cricket. On the 6 December 2007 he was named as the new Number 1 batsman in the LG ICC Test player rankings with a rating of 938, the highest rating ever achieved by a Sri Lankan player, and became the first batsman ever to score in excess of 150 in four consecutive tests.