Sri Lanka’s most experienced batsman Angelo Mathews has been ruled out of the upcoming Sri Lanka tour of South Africa due to injury.
Mathews aggravated an existing hamstring injury while bowling in the semifinal of the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League between Colombo Kings and Galle Gladiators. Since there was an injury to Andre Russell, Mathews was forced to try and complete his full quota of overs yesterday (13). He left the field after bowling 3.1 overs and didn’t return as his team went down to the Galle Gladiators.
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After the semifinal, Mathews described the situation of his injury as “pretty bad” in the post-match presentation, and it was confirmed today that he won’t be on the flight to South Africa on the 18th of December.
The Head of the Sri Lanka Cricket selection committee Asantha de Mel told ThePapare.com exclusively, “He [Angelo Mathews] won’t be touring South Africa due to a hamstring injury. We’re trying to get him fit for the England series. We have to discuss with the team management and see if we need a replacement since we have already selected 22 players for two Tests”
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A 22-player Test squad has been named for the two Test matches versus South Africa which will be also part of the ICC World Test Championship. The squad started training before the LPL tournament last month.
Apart from Mathews, Test opener Oshada Fernando’s presence for the first Test match which will commence on 26th December is also uncertain as he is still not fully recovered from the injury he sustained in the LPL opening game for Dambulla Viiking.
Sri Lanka last toured South Africa for a 2-match Test series in 2019 and recorded a historic victory in that series whitewashing the Proteas 2-0. However, Mathews wasn’t a part of that Test squad as he was recovering from another injury at the time.
