The Sri Lanka team is likely to call up veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews and pacer Dushmantha Chameera to join the squad in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 as traveling reserves. Sri Lanka is at the bottom of the points table with no win from 3 matches.
The Islanders recently lost the services of captain Dasun Shanaka who suffered a thigh injury and was replaced in the squad by Chamika Karunaratne. Sri Lanka are already missing ace spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, who couldn’t recover in time from his hamstring injury.
Even Dushmantha Chameera had been ruled out when the Sri Lanka World Cup squad was announced. Chameera had suffered a shoulder injury which was the reason he was not considered for the CWC 2023 squad.
However, with him being fully recovered as per reports from Daily Mirror Sri Lanka, Chameera was preferred over Pramod Madushan, who the selectors had considered to strengthen the weak bowling attack.
With Matheesha Pathirana out for at least ten days due to an inflammation in his bowling arm, Chameera’s inclusion as the additional player will allow the team management to bring him into the 15-man squad, should Matheesha or any other player be ruled out due to injury.
On the other hand, former captain Angelo Mathews had not been in the plans of Sri Lankan selectors. He was not picked for the World Cup Qualifiers early this year and was not considered for the World Cup squad as well.
He had been frozen out of white-ball cricket since 2021 when the selectors introduced a youth-based policy. Selectors tried him out when the New Zealand tour happened in March, but with scores of 18, 0, and 12 in his three outings against the Kiwis and Afghanistan, he was dropped again.
But with Sri Lanka collapsing against Australia in a crunch match, selectors have seemingly gone back to the experience of Mathews for the middle order.
