Angelo Mathews is facing the biggest match yet after taking over as Sri Lanka’s captain. Ahead of his team’s semifinal clash against India, Mathews shared his views on various issues here on Wednesday.
Excerpts:
On his plans to tackle India’s batting: I haven't told them (bowlers) anything so far. Well, yeah, we need to make our plans and strategies right for tomorrow, but I'm sure the bowlers are confident enough to face their batting line-up. I think India is a very strong team to beat, and the past record (against them) has not been very good for us. But hopefully we can turn things around tomorrow.
On changes since the 2011 World Cup final: India is a very strong team to beat and they are a well-balanced team. I think we need to play positive cricket. And considering that the weather is not in our control, we need to try and control the things that we can control; batting, bowling and fielding, obviously. We will try and do our best in that and try and win.
On beating England and Australia in group stage: Especially after the New Zealand game, we had to do it (win) the hard way and we had to beat England in English conditions and also the Australians had played really well in the past couple of months. The boys responded brilliantly. We had to win the two games to get into the semifinals, and we had to do it the hard way, and the boys responded brilliantly.
On Jayawardene and Sangakkkara: I would say they are the backbone of the batting line-up, but Dilshan also is a very senior guy. We've got a few youngsters in Dinesh Chandimal, Thirimanne who can take the bowling apart. But we are not depending on certain people in the team because all seven are good batters. But we saw Sangakkara and Mahela come back into their peak form and yes, we depend on them.
