De Alwis had a constant tussle with Amal Silva to maintain the No.1 wicketkeeping berth. Quite tall, De Alwis was considered the superior keeper, though Silva held the upper hand in the batting stakes by quite a stretch. Mahes Goonatilleke's defection allowed de Alwis to make his debut on the 1982-83 tour of New Zealand. One of seven debutants in the first Test at Christchurch, de Alwis scored 0 and 3 and took one catch. Amal Silva was preferred in the next match, though De Alwis kept in all three Tests when New Zealand toured Sri Lanka. De Alwis's keeping was exemplary and while he made some handy scores in the lower order he could not convert them. Injury on the 1984 tour of England cost him his place, and Silva had a tremendous Test at Lords and kept his place with some solid knocks thereafter. In his further Tests - when Silva was injured or unwell - de Alwis kept tidily but his batting was below standard. Conversely in the one-day game de Alwis was quite a useful lower-order batsman.
Johann P Jayasekera