That Mohali should be the venue for such a momentous occasion would have given Atapattu immense satisfaction. For it was here, exactly three days to seven years, that he made his Test debut against India at the age of 18.
The ground was then known as Chandigarh Sector 16 Stadium and it was superseded in December 1994 as Mohali Punjab Cricket Association ground.
It was not a happy occasion for Atapattu, because on an underprepared pitch favouring spin, Atapattu collected a dreaded 'pair'.
Worse was to follow. In his next four Test innings against Australia at home (SSC) in 1992-93 and against India at Ahmedabad in 1993-94, his scores were : 0, 1, 0, 0, giving him a Test average of 0.16 in his first three Tests.
Five 'ducks' in the first six Test innings would probably have been the worst starts to a batsman's Test career.
Atapattu was not recalled to the Test side until the tour of New Zealand early this year, when with the departure of Asanka Gurusinha, the no. 3 spot became vacant.
The stylish right-hander with textbook strokes reminiscent of Michael Tissera and Roy Dias, yet failed to produce the goods at this position. He was even promoted to open the batting with the redoubtable Sanath Jayasuriya, but still his highest Test score was no more than 29. He went to India with a Test batting average of just 10.70 from nine Tests (17 innings).
Atapattu was a heavy scorer in domestic cricket. In two successive seasons (1994-5 and 1995-96) he finished on top of the Sri Lanka first-class averages with over a 1,000 runs on each occasion. But many questioned his temperament for the big occasion.
However, the selectors persevered and kept their faith with him, that one day he would come good.
Yesterday at Mohali, the opening day of the first Test against India, Atapattu finally fulfilled the selectors' faith by scoring a magnificent century.
It was a classy innings and he reached those magical three-figures with a classic cover drive straight from the book. His innings was witnessed by two great opening batsmen of the past, Sunil Gavaskar and Geoffrey Boycott. Their summation of Atapattu was ``he is a textbook cricketer''. Need we say more.