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Sri Lanka have brought in veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews to replace injured young pacer Matheesha Pathirana in their 2023 World Cup squad.
Pathirana was ruled out of the tournament after suffering a shoulder injury against Pakistan on October 10. He returned home recently but the extent of his injury and recovery time remains unclear.
Earlier, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had added Mathews and pacer Dushmantha Chameera to the squad as injury backups.
"Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to announce that Angelo Mathews and Dushmantha Chameera will join the team in India as traveling reserves," an official statement read on October 19. "The Sri Lanka Cricket Selectors took this decision in order to ensure that the team has ready replacements in place to face contingencies, such as an injury to an existing squad member."
Chameera could have been a more straightforward replacement but the SLC has seemingly gone for batting stability.
Mathews, 36, has played 221 ODIs for Sri Lanka, scoring 5865 runs at an average of 41.01 and picking up 120 wickets with his medium pace. He bats in the middle order and used to be a good operator of the new ball in his prime.
He has been dropped and brought back into the team in the past few years on multiple occasions. The veteran all-rounder featured in all three previous editions of the World Cup. In the 2019 World Cup, he scored a brilliant 128-ball 113 against India in Leeds.
Matheesha Pathirana was struggling in the 2023 World Cup
One of the most promising fast-bowling talents in Sri Lanka, Pathirana was in great form in the leadup to the World Cup but struggled after arriving in India. He conceded 95 runs on the flat Delhi wicket against South Africa and 90 against Pakistan for just two wickets overall.
His ruling out is another in the series of an unprecedented injury crisis in the Lankan team. Several first-choice players, including skipper Dasun Shanaka, have already been sidelined from the tournament.
After one win from five matches, Sri Lanka are currently placed ninth in the standings, only ahead of England on net run rate.
