In the world of cricket, Angelo Mathews is making an unexpected return in 2023. This year doesn’t quite carry the same resonance as the many years that have passed during his enigmatic career spanning a decade-and-a-half.
Angelo Mathews was meant to be a multitude of things for Sri Lankan cricket – a charismatic leader of men, an all-rounder with aspirations reaching for the stars, and the embodiment of a nation’s hopes following the departure of cricketing legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. To his credit, he fulfilled many of these expectations.
His leadership qualities were evident since his school cricket days at St. Joseph’s and came to full fruition at the highest level. His fledgling Test career boasted over 100 appearances and an average of 44, coupled with 120 ODI wickets. Career highlights included leading Sri Lanka to their first Test series win in England, a stellar 2014 with the bat, a T20 World Cup medal, and guiding the ODI side to the quarter-finals of the 2015 World Cup when the team’s fortunes were dwindling.
The path to joining the ranks of Sri Lankan greats before him seemed well-paved. However, just when he was expected to carry the team through the post-Sangakkara era, his hamstrings began to betray him. Struggles to complete a series without injury and the reluctant decision to give up bowling to manage his workload defined this frustratingly start-stop phase of his career. He kept coming back from injury layoffs, but with each return, he appeared to be a diminished cricketer, his time on the sidelines dulling his abilities and importance to the team.
Consider this: from his ODI debut in 2008 to the end of Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign in 2015, he played in 156 of the 188 ODIs. In the following four-year World Cup cycle, he missed more games than he had in the previous seven (37).
Mathews’s fragility slowly chipped away at the possibility of superstardom, ending any hopes of positioning him as a modern-day great all-rounder. His career, instead, is a bittersweet tale of a player who promised the moon with his potential but had his wings clipped by his own body.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka Cricket often found themselves turning to him in times of need. Not long after he had relinquished his captaincy in 2017, the board implored him to take it up again in the two white-ball formats. In the same year (2018), they stripped him of the captaincy after a disappointing Asia Cup and even dropped him from a tour of England, possibly signaling the end of his World Cup dreams there a year later.
Yet, he made a comeback, and Sri Lanka relied on his wealth of experience. He responded by being one of the standout performers in an otherwise disappointing campaign and shone brightly in one of Sri Lanka’s greatest World Cup victories, against the hosts and eventual champions in Leeds. Although Sri Lanka didn’t advance past the group stage, they held hope that Mathews could stay fit and revitalize his career in his 30s.
The last four years, however, did not unfold as he or anyone in Sri Lanka would have liked. Consistent fitness continued to elude him, and by mid-2021, he lost his T20I spot. This ODI World Cup cycle has been even more unkind, granting him just 10 appearances in 57 ODIs that Sri Lanka played in this period. Mathews has only featured in three ODIs this year and was not considered an essential part of Sri Lanka’s path to the World Cup via qualifiers.
Now, we find ourselves on Wednesday. Despite not being part of the original squad for Zimbabwe, fate has landed him in India with the sudden opportunity to participate in his fourth ODI World Cup. Sri Lanka, faced with depleted bowling resources and their backs against the wall, have called upon Mathews and his experience once again. The potential benefits of this move in the next five games, or possibly more, are anyone’s guess. Even Mathews, who spoke of working on his fitness and waiting in the wings for an opportunity, cannot provide a clue about how this unexpected swansong might unfold. Sri Lanka might be banking on the idealized image of Mathews, the perfect all-rounder with a savior’s spirit, instead of the realistic, fragile figure who has only played three ODIs this year.
“I’ve probably seen it all over the last 15 years,” Mathews said on the eve of the England game. Perhaps only a player like him could utter words that encompass both a boast and a painful understatement.
- Disclaimer: The prediction is based on the understanding, analysis, and instinct of the author. While making your prediction, consider the points mentioned, and make your own decision.
