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Leave cricket before cricket leaves you!
Former Sri Lanka Captain Angelo Mathews today announced his retirement from Test cricket. The veteran is set to play his last Test match against Bangladesh next month.
The middle order batsman who was recognised as one of the generational talents at Inter-School level lived upto his potential quickly becoming an integral part of the national setup since his debut in 2008.
In his Test career, Mathews has scored 8,167 runs at an average of 44.62 having represented the national team in 118 matches while picking up 33 wickets. Although Mathews started off his career as a genuine all-rounder, continuous injuries meant that he bowled less and less as his career progressed.
The year 2014, was without a doubt the best year for the former Josephian having scored 1,160 runs at an average of 78. Under his leadership Sri Lanka recorded a historical series win against England in 2014 with Mathews himself leading from the front with a memorable century in Headingley.
His superb performance in the year saw him being named as the Captain of ICC Test Team of the Year. Although Mathews did make significant contributions in the next decade, the right-hander wasn’t quite able to hit the same levels. For the last few years Mathews was mainly seen as a Test cricketer though he somehow went onto play a World Cup without much success.
Today, when Mathews announced his retirement he however highlighted the fact that he is still available for limited overs cricket which is an interesting call. Sri Lanka though hasn’t had much success in ICC events, has quietly made themselves a stronger side especially in the ODI format over the years with players like Charith Asalanka, Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis making consistent runs for them while young and lesser known Janith Liyanage making so many contributions down the lower middle order for Sri Lanka.
If Angelo Mathews was to return to the national ODI or T20 setup that would mean one of the younger players such as Liyanage would have to pave the way for the senior man which would look really unfair. On the other hand though, every country should field their best teams in order to try and win games for their respective nations but to make a return to the national side, one has to perform really well in the domestic cricket or in foreign leagues.
The only player who has been able to do that in the recent past is Dasun Shanaka who scored tons of runs since he was dropped as the captain of the national limited overs teams and now being picked up by the Indian Premier League giants Gujarat Titans.
If there is a way to Mathews to comeback to the ODI or T20 side remains a big question mark but if he does, that would probably not be the right decision and after more than two decades in cricket, Mathews should know himself to leave cricket before the cricket leaves him.
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