Angelo Mathews reckons Sri Lanka will have to step up their game to defeat India

Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews was open in his acceptance that it will be “very hard to beat India” in the upcoming Champions Trophy game. Sri Lanka will go head to head with the defending champions at The Oval on Thursday.

Despite having got off to a flying start, they lost by 96 runs against South Africa while chasing 300. To make matters worse, Sri Lanka have suffered a couple of blows via injuries which will certainly pose a problem to their winning prospects against India. Captain Mathews was himself unable to bowl and senior batsman Chamara Kapugedara had already sustained a knee injury.

On the other hand, stand-in skipper Upul Tharanga has been suspended by the ICC for a slow over-rate. He will, therefore, be unable to play the group matches of the Champions Trophy, and can expect to make a comeback only if they qualify for the semi-finals.

India a force in world cricket: Angelo Mathews

“As you know, India is a force in world cricket no matter where they play, whether it’s at home or away. They have played fantastic cricket especially in the last couple of years. It’s very hard to beat them unless we are on top of our game. We will all have to pull our socks up and give a great performance tomorrow,” Mathews said on the eve of the game against India.

Sri Lanka have opted for an inexperienced team, and Mathews is well aware of the fact that his side isn’t favourites to lift the Champions Trophy. However, he mentioned that it does takes away a lot of pressure from the youngsters. That being said, Mathews also said that this team needs to understand how to deal with pressure.

They’ve also lost Kapugedra to a knee injury as he has been ruled out of the Champions Trophy. “Kapugedera got injured at training, so we sent him for an MRI scan. We are waiting for the doctor’s report. If need be, we might have to bring in a replacement,” the skipper added.

Sri Lanka happy to walk in as underdogs

“We are happy to walk in as the underdogs. I mean, no one really expects us to win the Championship which takes away a lot of pressure out of the guys. I mean, yes, we have had so many greats and they have retired (referring to Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, TM Dilshan). We are slowly rebuilding, but surely, we will come up with a good performance,” he said.

When asked about the gap between India and the rest of the Asian nations, Mathews didn’t believe it has increased over the years. India dominated the Asia Cup and was the only Asian team to have reached the World T20 semi-finals in 2016. He, however, felt Sri Lanka are at par with the Indians, and stated that the Islanders have also been successful overseas.

“No, I don’t think so. Yes, India have done extremely well in the past couple years. If you look at our team, we’ve beaten the Australians, which was the number 1 team a few months back. We beat Australia in Australia. We beat South Africa in South Africa. So I don’t think there’s a massive difference. It’s just that there will be phases when you struggle. There will be phases when you play well. So you can’t really single out the best team,” the skipper said.

Moreover, Mathews agreed that not being able to bowl will certainly be detrimental to the team’s chances of winning, and also affect the balance of his side.

“It does upset the balance a little bit. If I could bowl my 10 overs, unfortunately, I mean, I am okay to play as a batsman but not as a bowler. So we have to think about it — we have to come up with some other plans to try and cope with the Indian batting line-up. But yes, this is what we’ve got, and we’ll definitely use the resources that we’ve got at the moment,” Mathews shared.

Sri Lanka need Kumar Sangakkara back?

The allrounder was apparently asked if he’d request Kumar Sangakkara to come out of retirement and join back the Sri Lankan team. In response, Mathews smiled and replied in jest: “I always asked him that!”

“Even a couple days ago, I was asking him can you come and play for us, you know, in this game? He has been in absolute (tremendous) form (for Surrey in County). He has been in form ever since he started playing, to be honest,” Mathews said.

“Yes, he (Sangakkara) has had a dream career, and it’s unfortunate that we don’t have him anymore, but he is always willing to help us. He is always having chats with us on how we should play on these conditions, especially, it’s his home ground. And he has had a lot of chats to all the younger players, including myself,” he concluded.