Kumar Sangakkara is one of cricket’s true greats, says Gareth Batty

What more can I say about Kumar Sangakkara? He has scored 12,400 Test runs, 20,296 first-class runs and he played for Sri Lanka from 2000-15, helping them to the World Twenty20 title in 2014, as well as two World Cup finals.

He is one of the greatest batsmen of all time and is now approaching the end of his career — he has said this will be his last season of first-class cricket for Surrey. Cricket fans across the world might think, therefore, that he would be taking his foot off the gas at this stage. They need to think again.

From the first ball of his innings, he is pushing for quick singles. He runs as hard between the wickets for his batting partner as he does when he is on strike.

A lot of great players struggle to empathise with cricketers who do not have their talent, but Kumar is constantly thinking about the team and his fellow players.

He passes on his knowledge all the time, helping the team become better.

It is no coincidence that other players in the team seem to bat better when he is at the crease. That is because he is always giving advice throughout the innings on the bowling or the way the batsmen should tackle a certain phase of the game.

Even at the age of 39 he is always working on aspects of his play and is still trying to get better — even though he scored six hundreds in a row, across the County Championship and Royal London One-Day Cup. We were desperate for him to make six consecutive first-class hundreds, and were disappointed when he was out for 84 in the second innings against Essex earlier this week. But five in a row in the first-class game is still a record for Surrey.