Mathews Key Man for T20 World Cup

By Harsha Amarasinghe   

Angelo Mathews was dead and buried at least as a limited over cricketer under the previous selection committee led by Promod ya Wickramasinghe. Despite Sri Lanka’s continuous struggle, and Mathews’ performances in the domestic league the all-rounder not given a chance. On Sunday however, the former Sri Lanka captain produced a match-winning knock against Zimbabwe to save the day for Sri Lanka who were losing the game at 6 for 83 chasing a target of 144.   

Mathews who had just scored 6 runs off 15 balls, kept his calmness in bringing Sri Lanka back into the game eventually scoring 46 runs off 38 balls. After winning the game for Sri Lanka the former St. Joseph’s captain didn’t shy away from taking a dig at the former selectors claiming he was overlooked due to ‘agendas.’  

While Mathews’ opinions are personal to him, from a pure cricketing perspective, Mathews actually could be the most important member of Sri Lanka T20 team ahead of the World Cup later this year, if he remains fit.   

On Sunday, Mathews opened the bowling for Sri Lanka which is a real bonus given that most of the opposition would struggle to get runs against the spin duo Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana. While Mathews is likely to only bowl two overs, he also has the capability to bowl at death depends on the situation.   

One of Sri Lanka’s biggest issues in T20 cricket in recent years has been the fact that they never really had a proper finisher with former captain Dasun Shanaka being quite inconsistent. Shanaka on his day could take on any attack, but his problem has been that he has never been able to finish off games on a consistent basis. In Mathews Sri Lanka may not have the same explosive striking of Dasun Shanaka, but a wiley old fox who knows how to get the job done.   

On the other hand, the T20 World Cup is set to be held in West Indies and United States of America. The West Indies wickets have traditionally been slow and low wickets where a medium fast bowler like Angelo Mathews could have a major impact with the ball.   

Although certain grounds are much smaller in West Indies, one can expect low scoring games where someone like Mathews would be the best possible batsman to finish off a game.   
Sri Lanka’s new T20 captain Wanindu Hasaranga has idolized Angelo Mathews all his life, so Mathews will certainly have his backing moving forward in the shorter format.   
Mathews described his comeback game against Zimbabwe felt like another debut. So he would perhaps doubted himself on whether he’d be able to reach the top level. His performance and that win should give him so much confidence to really establish himself in this T20 team until the World Cup.