Youngsters filling void left by Sanga, Mahela, Dilshan: Angelo Mathews

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews feels that young cricketers in the team have shown maturity and responsibility and are ready to step up and fill the vacuum left by the retirement of stalwarts like Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan. After a 0-2 series loss at the hands of England, it was believed that Sri Lanka will find it very difficult to fill the void left by these legends. But what transpired next left everyone clapping the young brigade who went on to whitewash the mighty Australians 3-0 at home before winning one more series in Zimbabwe.

Despite their inability to tackle quality pacers, Mathews remained optimistic about their chances for the forthcoming Test series in South Africa. “When Sanga, Mahela and Dilshan retired it created a vacuum in the team, but the youngsters have taken it up well. We saw in the Australia series that the youngsters like Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva were standing up. It’s great to see them coming through,” Mathews was quoted as saying by the Sport 24.

He also said that the Proteas played a terrific brand of cricket during their recent series win in Australia but also backed his team to perform well despite their unimpressive records on fast tracks. “South Africa have been playing extremely good cricket against Australia.They went over to Australia and beat the Australians, which is not an easy thing to do. If we play to our potential – we’ve got the skills. We’ve done it in the past,” Mathews said.

The Sri Lankan skipper conceded that the team would not think much about their lack of experience of playing in South Africa and would rather focus on putting the best foot forward. “No one has played any Test matches or one-dayers here from this touring party. We’ve heard so many things but, we will not think about it too much because we’re not sure what we’re going to get. We’ll look at it closer on the day before the match,” he insisted.

Sri Lanka will take on the Proteas in the Boxing Day Test at the St. Georges Oval to start of their tour.