Angelo Mathews was ruled out of Sri Lanka tour of Pakistan.
Angelo Mathews is all set to return to the Sri Lanka team for its tour of India in November after both the Sri Lanka Cricket board and head coach of the team confirmed that he is injury free. Two other players — Kusal Perera and Asela Gunaratne — are likely to join Mathews back in the squad for the same tour.
Sri Lanka will play on a full tour to India beginning November 16. The teams are scheduled to play three Tests, five ODIs and three T20 Internationals. All three players will look to strengthen a weakend Sri Lanka which is struggling in limited-overs cricket.
“Angelo and Kusal Janith [Perera] have both recovered and they will be considered for selection for the Indian series. Asela Gunaratne is fit as well,” SLC CEO Ashley De Silva was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Sri Lanka have suffered losses in their last 16 white-ball games including ODI and T20I series whitewashes against India and Pakistan in Sri Lanka and UAE respectively. Head coach Nic Pothas was also of the opinion that Sri Lanka need a change.
“It’s pretty obvious what the mood will be like when you’ve lost 16 games,” Pothas said. “With respect to new faces, that’s a conversation that we need to have with the selectors. But I think it stands to reason that in any walk of life, when you’ve had negative results for a period of time you need to see some change somewhere.”
But, Pothas praised the team for their record win against Pakistan in the Test series. Sri Lanka became the first team to win a Test series against Pakistan in UAE since Australia in 2002.
“On the Test series, let me remind you that we made history,” he stated. “We did something that no other nation has ever done in the UAE. It tends to have been forgotten due to the fact that ODIs follow the Tests. But we have to give huge credit to the team and to the captain.
“Overall across the whole tour we can certainly glean a lot of positives. The fielding has improved out of sight and certainly was one of the shining lights throughout the month that we were out there. And the bowling as well was of a very high standard; the execution of the plans was very pleasing.
“Obviously, some of the batting didn’t go according to plan, but that’s the cricket world and other teams are allowed to play well. It was also one of the best bowling attacks in the world so it’s always going to be tough, but I think on the whole the series started off very well with that Test win. Certainly the attitude, the character and the fight shown by that team was very, very pleasing.”
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