Angelo Mathews’ good form has gone unnoticed but India should be Wary of it

Angelo Mathews has hardly put a foot wrong in the ongoing ODI series against India. He has produced some splendid performances both with the bat and ball. Although, those performances didn't make a major impact on the results of the previous two matches, India should not take him lightly as his form may turn out to be a major deciding factor in the series decider on Sunday.

He is yet to be dismissed in this series. A small yet crucial knock of 25* helped Sri Lanka over the line in the first ODI at Dharamsala. And then, he produced a classy 111* at Mohali that unfortunately came in a losing cause.

With the ball too, he has proved himself a tricky customer to deal with. He hardly bowls express pace now-a-days but he makes every bit of his experience count. It was his crucial opening spell with the ball at Dharamsala that marked the beginning of the landslide in the Indian batting unit with the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan and served as a perfect support system to Suranga Lakmal’s splendid bowling at the other end. He returned with figures of 5-2-8-1 in that match.

Moreover, he returned with impressive figures of 4-1-9-0 in that carnage by the Indian batsmen in the second ODI as well. Although, he still can't bowl his full quota of 10 overs due to fitness issues, he ensures that his every little spell counts.

Pundits always deemed Mathews a player destined to achieve greatness. He was expected to lead the Sri Lankan side by example after the greats of the game like Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene retired. However, a series of injuries and a poor performance from the whole Sri Lankan unit in recent years, especially during the tour of Zimbabwe earlier this year, forced him to step down from the role of captaincy and focus on his performance which was getting affected as a consequence.

Mathews led Sri Lanka across a total of 98 ODIs, 34 Tests and 12 T20Is over a period of 4 years between 2013 and 2017. And he maintained a mediocre win percentage winning 47 ODIs, 13 Tests and 4 T20Is. Moreover, he received heavy criticism for losing a total of 45 ODIs, 15 Tests and 7 T20Is, mostly towards the end of his captaincy tenure. However, he received strong support from a faction of the pundits including former Sri Lankan World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga.

“Mathews is the best captain I have seen after Ranjan Madugalle. When he said that he wanted to quit, SLC should have told him to hang in there without throwing the towel in. If I had any say, I would have told him that this is not the time to quit," Ranatunga told Cricbuzz in August this year.

Although, his bowling wasn't quite effective in the longer formats, he made a huge impact with his all round abilities in each of Sri Lanka’s ODI victories during his stint as the captain.

He averages 45.36 with the bat and 32.29 with the ball in the matches that he played as a captain. Both are slightly better than his career batting and bowling averages of 42.06 and 33.95 respectively. However, when his statistics as a captain is compared to that without the responsibility, those read much better than averages of 38.16 and 35.61 respectively.

Moreover, his all round contributions to Sri Lanka’s win percentage is massive as well. He has 1265 runs and 31 wickets to his name at averages of 55.00 and 28.29 respectively in the 47 matches that Sri Lanka won under his leadership. That's the main reason why some pundits rated him quite highly as a captain.

Although, captaincy for him is a thing of the past now, he can just focus on his individual performance now and contribute heavily once again with his all-round abilities. He is doing so as he has announced his returned to form with two good all-round performances in the last couple of ODIs against India. But those have gone unnoticed due to Lakmal's fiery spell in the first ODI and India's emphatic victory in the second ODI.

However, India should not ignore the form he is in. For, it can turn out lethal for them in the series decider. India should make plans to tackle his bowling and at the same time should find out a way to stop him from scoring runs. Otherwise, Mathews can turn out to be a very dangerous customer to deal with.