Angelo Davis Mathews (; ; born 2 June 1987) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer and a former captain of the national cricket team in all formats. Mathews retired from Test cricket in 2025. Mathews was a member of the team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made the finals of 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20. Mathews and Lasith Malinga hold the record for the highest ninth wicket partnership in ODI cricket.
In July 2022, Mathews played in his 100th Test match for Sri Lanka. As captain, Mathews led his national team to be the winners of the 2014 Asia Cup. On 7 November 2023, Mathews became the first player in the history of international cricket to be declared timed out without facing a delivery, as it happened during a group stage match between Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh at the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.
Personal life
Mathews made his List A debut for Sri Lanka Under-23 against New Zealand A at Police Park Ground, Colombo in September 2005. He captained the Sri Lankan cricket team in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka. He later made his first-class debut for Colombo Cricket Club in November 2006.
Mathews was born in Colombo, to Tamil father Tyronne Mathews and Burgher mother Monica Mathews. Mathews is Roman Catholic and was educated at St. Joseph's College, Colombo.
Mathews is married to his long time partner, Heshanie Silva. The wedding reception was held on 18 July 2013 at Cinnamon Grand Hotel with the presence of former president Mahinda Rajapakse. They have one son and one daughter.
Domestic career
In the Indian Premier League cricket, he played for Delhi Daredevils in the 2017 Indian Premier League season. He is one of the most sought out players in the Premier League world, having been bought by the Pune Warriors for US$950,000. Cricket Australia
In March 2018, he was named as the captain of Kandy's squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. The following month, he was also named as the captain for Kandy's squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament.
In August 2018, he was named as the captain of Kandy's squad the 2018 SLC T20 League. In October 2020, he was drafted by the Colombo Kings for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League. In July 2022, he was signed by the Colombo Stars for the third edition of the Lanka Premier League.
International career Impressive start Mathews began his international career in late 2008 with ambitions of becoming a genuine allrounder, but has since given primacy to his batting (to diminish his workload and avoid injuries), and effectively plays as a specialist batter in the Test team. However, for the balance of the team, he still plays as a batting allrounder in limited-overs cricket. A more than useful strike rate of 84.06 has made him a damaging prospect in the final overs of the Sri Lankan innings.Angelo Mathews (Player Profile)- ESPN Cricinfo
He made his international debut in a One Day International against Zimbabwe in November 2008 and made his Test debut against Pakistan at Galle in July 2009.
Angelo Mathews made his Test debut in Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, in 2009. The Test also marked the debuts of Abdur Rauf, Mohammad Amir and Saeed Ajmal. He scored his maiden half-century in the third Test of the series, played at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo. His maiden ton came against Australia in September 2011 in the same venue. Mathews has an average record in Tests in countries such as Australia, South Africa and India, but up to now he has had limited opportunities to improve on it. His brilliant records at home and in countries like England and UAE make up for that. Two of his four centuries came in England – against a high-quality pace attack consisting of James Anderson and Stuart Broad – in the famous Sri Lanka tour of England and Ireland, 2014. He has also flourished with the added responsibility of captaincy, averaging 86.62 in 13 matches.
In February 2013, Mathews became Sri Lanka's youngest-ever Test captain at 25, after having been groomed for the post for two years. He captained the Lankan team in its monumental Test series win in England (2014). His highest Test score (200 off 428 balls) came in the first match vs Zimbabwe 2020.
Captaincy in all formats (2013–2017)
After Kumar Sangakkara stepped down as ODI captain following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Mathews was widely tipped to be Sri Lanka's next limited-overs captain. However, short tenures of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene followed. After Sri Lanka's loss in the final of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20, the skipper Jayawardene stepped down as captain of the T20I team. Later that month, Mathews was appointed as the T20I captain with Lasith Malinga as his deputy. In February 2013 Mathews was eventually named as ODI and Test captain succeeding Jayawardene.
Mathews became an important member of the Sri Lanka One Day team during the Sri Lanka tour of Australia in 2010/11. At the first match, on 3 November 2010, Mathews scored a magnificent match-winning 77* runs with a partnership with Lasith Malinga, who also scored his only half-century. Sri Lanka was in trouble when he came into the crease, but finally won the match. In this match, Mathews along with Malinga, recorded the highest ninth-wicket partnership in ODI history by scoring 132 runs for the ninth wicket.
Mathews hit back-to-back centuries against England at Lord's and Headingley to seal Sri Lanka's first-ever Test series win in England. Under him, Sri Lanka also won the ODI series 3 – 2. The England tour was followed by a 2 – 0 win over Pakistan at home, where Mathews and his team ensured a winning send-off for Mahela Jayawardene from Tests.Gautam Bhattacharyya. Sri Lanka have found a new-age cricket leader in Angelo Mathews Gulf News 28 August 2014
On 16 November 2014, Mathews scored his first ODI century against India at Ranchi. He hit four boundaries and ten huge sixes but finally ended up on the losing team with a century made by Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Under the captaincy of Mathews, however, lost all the matches in the 5 ODI series against India in 2014. This is the largest loss by Sri Lanka in a bilateral series.
The year 2014 was the limelight of Mathew's captaincy, where Sri Lanka won many bilateral ODI series and also the 2014 Asia Cup. That year, he became the most successful ODI captain with 20 wins out of 32 matches and 62.50% of winning percentage. For his performances in 2014, he was named as captain of the World Test XI by ICC. He was also named in the Cricbuzz XI of the year.
On 11 March 2015, during the last pool A match in 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, against Scotland, Mathews scored the fastest fifty by a Sri Lankan in World Cups, and third fastest ODI fifty by a Sri Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya and Kusal Perera. His fifty came from just 20 balls, which includes five sixes and one four.
Mathews was able to bring the team to the quarter-finals of the World Cup 2015 under his captaincy, where they lost the quarter-final against South Africa on 18 March 2015. This defeat was Sri Lanka's first loss in World Cups after 2003, without reaching for the semi-finals.
Mathews became the fourth Sri Lankan all-rounder to take 100 ODI wickets with more than 3000 ODI runs after Sanath Jayasuriya, Aravinda de Silva, and Tillakaratne Dilshan. He took his 100th ODI wicket by lbw of Mohammad Hafeez on 26 July 2015.
On 8 March 2016, Mathews was appointed as the T20I captain as well, due to continuous injuries of Lasith Malinga. On 17 August 2016, under Mathews' captaincy, Sri Lanka whitewashed Australia, which was at the Number 1 in Test rankings. This was the second time that Sri Lanka managed to Whitewash a major Test team in their history. Before that, West Indies who were led by Brian Lara were whitewashed in a three-test series in 2001, and apart from that only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have been whitewashed.
In July 2017, Sri Lanka lost a five-match home ODI series 3–2 against Zimbabwe. Matthews said the defeat was "one of the lowest points in my career" and he stepped down as captain of the team in all three formats the following day.
Post captaincy (2017) On 4 December 2017 against India, Mathews scored his eighth test century. His century came during a tough time for Sri Lanka's innings, where he built the innings slowly with captain Dinesh Chandimal. Finally Sri Lanka was able to drawn the match.
Mathews scored his second ODI hundred on 12 December 2017 at Mohali during the second ODI against India. However, his century was in vain due to the third double hundred of Rohit Sharma in the earlier innings and Sri Lanka was on a chase of a mammoth total of 392. With Mathews's unbeaten century, however, Sri Lanka crossed 250 after 10 ODI matches and finally lost the match by 141 runs.
During the second T20I against India, Mathews pulled up a hamstring strain as he ran in to deliver the third ball of his third over. He left the field and did not come to bat as well. With medical treatments and news arrived, he will be out of cricket for at least two weeks.
Captaincy second term (2018) On 9 January 2018, Mathews was reappointed as the captain for Sri Lanka in One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals for the second time less than six months after he resigned from the position. He stepped down from captaincy at the end of the Zimbabwe tour of Sri Lanka in 2017 after the ODI loss. However, with many defeats in all formats in 2017, a new coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and a new selection committee handed over the limited-overs captaincy to Mathews for the second time.
Things were not good for his captaincy, and Sri Lanka lost the first match for Zimbabwe in the Bangladesh tri-series. During the match, he suffered a knee injury and was ruled out from the rest of the ODI series. Dinesh Chandimal captained the team and won the series as well. Initial news revealed that Mathews would recover for the Test series against Bangladesh, but he did not recover and hence dropped from the Test squad. He also missed T20I series, where Chandimal appointed as the T20I captain. This Bangladesh tour was the third-consecutive overseas tour Mathews withdrew from with a hamstring injury, having also done so in 2017 in South Africa and India. In 2016, he had missed a full tour of Zimbabwe with "multiple leg injuries" as well.
In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season.
Mathews was sacked as the captain of the Sri Lankan ODI and T20 team in September 2018 after a disastrous 2018 Asia Cup campaign where Sri Lanka crashed out of the tournament after losing both their group matches against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Test captain Dinesh Chandimal was named as the replacement for Mathews to captain the limited-overs teams.
As anchor man During the first Test against New Zealand in late 2018, Mathews scored his ninth Test century. Mathews along with Kusal Mendis batted all over the fourth day, which was the fifth time that the Sri Lankan pair had done that in Test history. On the fifth day, they put on an unbeaten double-century partnership which overall lasted for 115 wicketless overs for New Zealanders. With rain-interrupted, the match was ended in a draw. The partnership of 246, was also Sri Lanka's highest for any wicket against New Zealand and also Sri Lanka's highest in the second innings of a Test. It was the first time a Sri Lankan pair had added 200-plus runs in the second innings of a Test outside Asia.
In the second Test, Mathews was injured with a hamstring trouble while he was batting with Chandimal. He was immediately sent for the medical scans and did not come to bat after tea. Sri Lanka finally lost the match and series 1–0. He was ruled out of the ODI tour and upcoming Australian tour as well.