Angelo Mathews replaces injured Matheesha Pathirana in Sri Lanka squad

Veteran all-rounder Angelo Mathews on Tuesday replaced injured pacer Matheesha Pathirana in Sri Lanka’s World Cup squad ahead of their match against England here on Thursday.

Pathirana had sustained a shoulder injury during Sri Lanka’s match against Pakistan, and the 20-year-old did not play in the subsequent games against Australia and Netherlands.

This is the fourth World Cup of Mathews since the 2011 edition, and the 36-year-old has played 221 ODIs for Sri Lanka. He has scored 5865 runs with three hundreds and 40 fifties and also has taken 120 wickets in the format.

Sri Lanka had recalled him as a travelling reserve last week along with pacer Dushmantha Chameera after he was sidelined in their original World Cup squad.

Pathirana is the second Lankan player to be ruled out of the World Cup after captain Dasun Shanaka flew back home with a quadriceps tear, an injury that warranted at least three weeks of recovery time. Chamika Karunaratne was named as Shanaka’s replacement.

Kusal Mendis has stepped in as Lankan captain in place of Shanaka.