Angelo Mathews

A robust batting technique, nagging consistency with the ball, athleticism in the field, and an imperturbable temperament made Angelo Mathews one of Sri Lanka's most prized assets, although persistent injuries and several standoffs with the Sri Lankan board prevented him from achieving his full potential.

In limited-overs cricket, Mathews' all-round skills have been indispensable. When he pulled a quad in the World Cup semi-final in 2011, it forced three changes to the XI that played in the final, as the team strove for the balance he could single-handedly deliver.

He began his international career with ambitions of becoming a genuine allrounder, but over time came to give primacy to his batting, effectively playing as a specialist batter in the Test side, providing solidity to the lower-middle order. Against Pakistan in December 2013, he batted for seven and a half hours to make an unbeaten 157 (having already scored 91 in the first innings) and save a Test in Abu Dhabi.

Mathews had an outstanding 2014, in which he scored 1160 Test runs at an average of 77.33, his finest moment being a rousing 160 at Headingley, which transformed that match and saw Sri Lanka win their first Test series in England (not including the one-off Test in 1998). He had also starred in Sri Lanka's victorious T20 World Cup campaign earlier that year, scoring 40 off 23 balls in the semi-final against West Indies and conceding only 25 runs for a wicket in the final against India.

He took over the captaincy in 2013, leading Sri Lanka to the series win in England, but after an embarrassing ODI series loss at home to Zimbabwe in 2017 and an early Asia Cup exit in 2018, Mathews found himself dropped from the one-day team altogether, specifically for his running between the wickets.

He batted for over seven hours to save the Wellington Test in December 2018, dropping on to the pitch after getting to his hundred to do ten push-ups and then flexing his biceps to let his coach know what he thought of being called cricket-unfit. He tore a hamstring in the next Test and was ruled out for four months. As if that wasn't enough drama, Mathews took a wicket off his first ball in the 2019 World Cup, not having bowled for eight months before that.

Despite the many injuries in the second half of his career, Mathews reached the 100-Tests milestone in 2022, becoming the 12th man to be dismissed for 199 in a Test in the process.