Sri Lanka get back Mathews, Perera and Gunaratne ahead of India tour

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Sri Lanka cricket team received a massive boost with the return of Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, and Asela Gunaratne for their India tour after the team suffered a whitewash against Pakistan. Interim coach Nic Pothas believes that a change of faces in the squad could overturn their poor form.

After Sri Lanka started the Pakistan series becoming the first team ever to beat them in a series in UAE since Australia back in 2002, the Lankans went on to end it with a shambolic eight straight defeats getting whitewashed by Pakistan in the ODI and T20I series. Clearly, they are not in the most positive of mindsets ahead of the India tour.

However, SLC CEO Ashley De Silva gave an encouraging news on Tuesday informing that Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera and Asela Gunaratne has recovered from their respective injuries and are available for selection ahead of the India series. Sri Lanka will tour India for a full series, which starts on November 11th and will play three Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is, ending just before Christmas.

India are the number one in World Test and ODI rankings now and have also tasted uninterrupted success across all formats a few months back at Sri Lanka itself. Though for Sri Lanka, who have now lost 16 white-ball matches on the trot, things look dark and dim, interim head coach Nic Pothas positively stated that a change in personnel could be the best way forward.

Pothas said, “It's pretty obvious what the mood will be like when you've lost 16 games. But I think it stands to reason that in any walk of life when you've had negative results for a period of time you need to see some change somewhere," reported Cricbuzz.

Pothas was quick to squeeze out the positives from a miserable series, where his side one of the best bowling sides in world cricket. “Obviously, some of the batting didn't go according to plan, but that's the cricket world and other teams are allowed to play well. It was also one of the best bowling attacks in the world so it's always going to be tough.”

“Overall across the whole tour we can certainly glean a lot of positives. The fielding has improved out of sight and certainly was one of the shining lights throughout the month that we were out there. And the bowling as well was of a very high standard; the execution of the plans was very pleasing.”

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