Angelo Mathews will probably bowl in ODIs: Rumesh Ratnayake

India led by Virat Kohli, hammered the Sri Lankan bowlers at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. The hosts posted 371/4 on the board at the end of Day 1 of the final Test match. Opener Murali Vijay and Kohli enjoyed their time out in the middle as the Lankan bowlers felt the heat. Sri Lanka’s fast bowling coach, Rumesh Ratnayake took the questions and hinted at the possibility of Angelo Mathews rolling his arms in the upcoming limited overs series.

Mathews hasn’t bowled after suffering from a hamstring injury, which forced him out of the Pakistan series. The veteran all-rounder did bowl against India, during the latter’s visit to the island nation. Rumesh said Mathews will bowl in the limited overs series.

On Mathews’ bowling

“If he is chosen into the ODIs, which I am sure he will, he will bowl. He is practising bowling in the nets already. Angelo (Mathews) has got a very acute injury. It’s not only the thighs now, it’s gone to the calves as well. We are very cautious of what he does and how he does things. He is managed carefully.” Rumesh said.

“Yesterday, Mathews bowled six overs in the nets and he looked good. Maybe he will bowl seven overs in the nets tomorrow (Sunday). But we will decide on that depending on whether he will have to bat (in the Test match) and stuff.” he added.

On playing an extra batsman

He also answered on the question that popped up ahead of the Delhi Test as the visitors opted to add an additional batsman after their poor outings with the bat.“It was a decision which we had to take (on playing an extra batsman). We had to decide whether to go with an extra bowler or with an extra batsman. Since we hadn’t done well in our batting, we wanted to make a better statement establishing a better score.” he said

“If we were going to bat the first day, we would have had those seven batsmen. It certainly taxes the opening bowlers because they are the ones who bowled the most in the last game also. Even today they are heavily taxed.” the coach added.