Angelo Mathews

Mathews began his international career in late 2008 with ambitions of becoming a genuine allrounder, but has since given primacy to his batting (to diminish his workload and avoid injuries), and effectively plays as a specialist batsman in the Test side. However, for the balance of the team, he still plays as a batting allrounder in the limited overs cricket. A more than useful strike rate of 84.06 has made him a damaging prospect in the final overs of the Sri Lankan innings.[9][4]

He made his international debut in a One Day International against Zimbabwe in November 2008 and made his Test debut against Pakistan at Galle in July, 2009.

Angelo Mathews at Sydney Cricket Ground in October 2010

Angelo Mathews made his Test debut in Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, 2009. The Test also marked the debuts of Abdur Rauf, Mohammad Amir and Saeed Ajmal. He scored his maiden half-century in the third Test of the series, played at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo. His maiden ton came against Australia in September, 2011 in the same venue.[10] Mathews has an average record in Tests in countries such as Australia, South Africa and India, but up to now he has had limited opportunities to improve on it. His brilliant records at home and in countries like England and UAE make up for that. Two of his four centuries came in England – against a high quality pace attack consisting of James Anderson and Stuart Broad – in the famous Sri Lanka tour of England and Ireland, 2014. He has also flourished with the added responsibility of captaincy, averaging 86.62 in 13 matches.[10]

In February 2013, Mathews became Sri Lanka's youngest ever Test captain at 25, after having been groomed for the post for two years. He captained the Lankan team in its monumental Test series win in England (2014). His highest Test score (200 off 428 balls) came in the first match vs zimbabwe 2020.[9]

Angelo Mathews as captain at the toss with Nick Knight

After Kumar Sangakkara stepped down as ODI captain following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Mathews was widely tipped to be Sri Lanka's next limited overs captain.[11] However, short tenures of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene followed.[12][13][14][15] After Sri Lanka's loss in the final of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20, the skipper Jayawardene stepped down as captain of the T20I side. Later that month, Mathews was appointed as the T20I captain with Lasith Malinga as his deputy.[1] In February 2013 Mathews was eventually named as ODI and Test captain succeeding Jayawardene.[16]

Mathews became an important member in Sri Lanka One Day team during the Sri Lanka tour of Australia in 2010/11. At the first match, on 3 November 2010, Mathews scored a magnificent match winning 77* runs with a partnership with Lasith Malinga, who also scored his only half-century. Sri Lanka were in trouble when he come into the crease, but finally won the match. In this match, Mathews along with Malinga, recorded the highest ninth wicket partnership in ODI history by scoring 132 runs for the ninth wicket.[17]

His knock of 80* against Pakistan at Colombo was nominated to be one of the best ODI batting performance of the year by ESPNCricinfo.[18]

He was selected in the 2nd XI of the 2014 ICC World T20 Cup by ESPNCricinfo.[19]

Mathews hit back-to-back centuries against England at Lord's and Headingley to seal Sri Lanka's first-ever Test series win in England. Under him, Sri Lanka also won the ODI series 3 – 2. The England tour was followed by a 2 – 0 win over Pakistan at home, where Mathews and his team ensured a winning send-off for Mahela Jayawardene from Tests.[20]

On 16 November 2014, Mathews scored his first ODI century against India at Ranchi. He hit four boundaries and ten huge sixes, but finally ended up in the losing side by century made by Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Under the captaincy of Mathews, however, lost all the matches in 5 ODI series against India in 2014. This is the largest loss by Sri Lanka in a bilateral series.[21]

Year 2014 was the limelight of Mathew's captaincy, where Sri Lanka won many bilateral ODI series and also the 2014 Asia Cup.[22] That year, he became the most successful ODI captain with 20 wins out of 32 matches and 62.50% of winning percentage.[23] For his performances in 2014, he was named as captain of the World Test XI by ICC. [24] He was also named in the Cricbuzz XI of the year.[25]

On 11 March 2015, during the last pool A match in 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, against Scotland, Mathews scored the fastest fifty by a Sri Lankan in World Cups, and third fastest ODI fifty by a Sri Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya and Kusal Perera. His fifty came from just 20 balls, where it includes 5 sixes and 1 four.[26]

Mathews was able to bring the team to quarter finals of the World Cup 2015 under his captaincy, where they lost the quarter final against South Africa on 18 March 2015. This defeat was Sri Lanka's first lost in World Cups after 2003, without reaching for the semi finals.

Angelo Mathews batting

Mathews became the fourth Sri Lankan all-rounder to take 100 ODI wickets with more than 3000 ODI runs after Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, and Tillakaratne Dilshan. He took his 100th ODI wicket by lbw of Mohammad Hafeez on 26 July 2015.[27]

He was also named in the Test XI of the year 2015 by Cricinfo [28]

On 8 March 2016, Mathews was appointed as the T20I captain as well, due to continuous injuries of Lasith Malinga.[29] On 17 August 2016, under Mathews' captaincy, Sri Lanka whitewashed Australia, which was at the Number 1 in Test rankings. This was the first time that Sri Lanka managed to Whitewash a major Test side in their history. Before that, only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have been whitewashed.[30]

In July 2017, Sri Lanka lost a five-match home ODI series 3–2 against Zimbabwe. Matthews said the defeat was "one of the lowest points in my career"[31] and he stepped down as captain of the team in all three formats the following day.[32]

On 4 December 2017 against India, Mathews scored his eighth test century. His century came during a tough time for Sri Lanka's innings, where he built the innings slowly with captain Dinesh Chandimal.[33] Finally Sri Lanka was able to drawn the match.

Mathews scored his second ODI hundred on 12 December 2017 at Mohali during the second ODI against India. However his century was in vain due to the third double hundred of Rohit Sharma in the earlier innings and Sri Lanka was on a chase of mammoth total of 392. With Mathews unbeaten century however, Sri Lanka crossed 250 after 10 ODI matches and finally lost the match by 141 runs.[34]

During the second T20I against India, Mathews pulled up hamstring strain as he ran in to deliver the third ball of his third over. He left the field and did not came to bat as well. With medical treatments and news arrived, he will be out of cricket for at least two weeks.[35]

On 9 January 2018, Mathews has been reappointed as the captain for Sri Lanka in One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals for the second time less than six months after he resigned from the position. He was stepped down from captaincy at the end of Zimbabwe tour of Sri Lanka in 2017 after ODI loss. However, with many defeats in all formats in 2017, new coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and new selection committee handed over limited over captaincy for Mathews for the second time.[2]

Things were not good for his captaincy, where Sri Lanka lost the first match for Zimbabwe in the Bangladesh tri-series. During the match he suffered a knee injury and ruled out from the rest of the ODI series.[36] Dinesh Chandimal captained the side and won the series as well. Initial news revealed that, Mathews will recover for the Test series against Bangladesh, but he did not recovered and hence dropped from the Test squad.[37] He also missed T20I series, where Chandimal appointed as the T20I captain.[38] This Bangladesh tour was the third-consecutive overseas tour Mathews has withdrawn from with a hamstring injury, having also done so last year in South Africa and India. In 2016, he had missed a full tour of Zimbabwe with "multiple leg injuries" as well.[39]

In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season.[40][41]

Mathews was sacked as the captain of the Sri Lankan ODI and T20 team in September, 2018 after a disastrous 2018 Asia Cup campaign where Sri Lanka crashed out of tournament after losing both their group matches against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Test captain Dinesh Chandimal was named as the replacement for Mathews to captain the limited overs teams.[42][43]

During the first Test against New Zealand in late 2018, Mathews scored his ninth Test century. Mathews along with Kusal Mendis batted all over fourth day, which was the fifth time that Sri Lankan pair had done that in Test history. On fifth day, they put on an unbeaten double century partnership which overall lasts for 115 wicketless overs for New Zealanders. With rain interrupted, the match was ended in a draw.[44] The partnership of 246, was also Sri Lanka's highest for any wicket against New Zealand[45] and also Sri Lanka's highest in the second innings of a Test. It was the first time a Sri Lankan pair has added 200-plus runs in the second innings of a Test outside Asia.[46]

In the second Test, Mathews injured with a hamstring trouble while he was batting with Chandimal. He was immediately sent for the medical scans and did not come to bat after tea.[47] Sri Lanka finally lost the match and series 1–0. He was ruled out of the ODI tour and upcoming Australian tour as well.[48]

In April 2019, he was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.[49][50] After consecutive failures of 0,0, 9 with the bat in World Cup, Mathews regained his form during the pool match against England. He scored unbeaten 85 runs to post a total of 232. With the bowling performance by veteran Malinga, Sri Lanka won the match by 20 runs.[51] During the match, Mathews scored his 12,000th international run for Sri Lanka.[52]. During the match against West Indies on 1 July 2019, Mathews surprisingly requested to bowl the 48th over. He picked up the wicket of Nicolas Pooran who was on 118, and was all set to take the West Indies to victory. Mathews, had not bowled for 8 months, even in the nets. The match winning ball was later known as the "Craziest ball in World Cup 2019".[53] On 6 July 2019 against India, Mathews scored his third century, where all his three centuries now came against India.[54] However, Sri Lanka lost the match by 7 wickets.[55]

Mathews was included to the T20I series against India in January 2020. It was his first T20I appearance after 16 months.[56][57] He played in the third T20I on 10 January 2020 and started to ball as well. However, he finished with expensive figures of 38 runs in three overs without a wicket. With the bat, he scored 31 runs and Sri Lanka eventually lost the match and the series.[58]

On 22 January 2020, during the first test against Zimbabwe, Mathews scored his maiden double hundred.[59] He scored unbeaten 200 runs in 465 balls within 600 minutes in the middle.[60] His double hundred is recorded as the first double hundred scored by a Sri Lanka in five years after Sangakkara's double in 2015.[61] Finally Sri Lanka won the match by 10 wickets and Mathews won the man of the match award.[62] Sri Lanka was able to draw the second Test due to second innings unbeaten century by Kusal Mendis and sealed the series 1-0.[63] Mathews won the player of the series award becoming highest run scorer in the series. Mathews scored 277 runs with a double hundred and one fifty at an average 138.50.[64]

During third ODI against West Indies, Mathews delivered match winning bowling spell. He bowled all 10 overs in the match since way back in July 2015 due to the injury of premier pacer Nuwan Pradeep. He took 4 for 59 where he bowled the penultimate over to win the match for Sri Lanka by 6 runs. He won man of the match award for match winning bowling performance.[65]