World Cup 2023: Veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews replaces injured Matheesha Pathirana in Sri Lanka squad

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Former captain Angelo Mathews on Tuesday replaced injured pacer Matheesha Pathirana in Sri Lanka's World Cup squad ahead of their match against England in Bengaluru on Thursday, October 26. Pathirana sustained a shoulder injury during Sri Lanka's match against Pakistan.

In the match, the 20-year-old bowled nine overs to leak as many as 90 runs for just one wicket. In his only other matches of the World Cup 2023, he leaked 95 runs in 10 overs for one wicket against South Africa in Delhi.

The injury has given veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews an opportunity to feature in the ODI World Cup for the fourth time in his career. The 36-year-old has played 221 ODIs for Sri Lanka and scored 5865 runs at an average of 41.01. He has three hundreds and 40 fifties to his name in the format. Mathews, also a very handy medium-pacer, has picked 120 wickets in the ODI format.

Sri Lanka had recalled him as a travelling reserve last week along with pacer Dushmantha Chameera after he was sidelined in their original World Cup squad. Chameera has officially replaced captain Dasum Shanaka who has travelled back home with a quadriceps tear, an injury that warranted at least three weeks of recovery time.

Sri Lanka have dealt with numerous injuries even before the start of the World Cup 2023. Their star all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga could not recover on time. Maheesh Theekshana also did not play the first match against South Africa but have recovered fully now and played in each of Sri Lanka's other three matches in the World Cup 2023.

Wicketkeeper-batter Kusal Mendis is leading the Sri Lankan side after Shanaka's departure. Sri Lanka are reeling at the ninth spot in the ten-team World Cup 2023 table. They lost their first three matches against South Africa, Pakistan and Australia before beating Netherlands in their last match.