Mathews hopes to rise to unexpected challenge
Angelo Mathews has admitted he was not mentally prepared to take over as Twenty20 captain after Lasith Malinga resigned because of fitness problems
Sri Lanka hopeful about Malinga
A serious question hangs over the availability of Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka's most experienced T20 bowler, for the first game of their campaign in India. Sri Lanka play a qualifier from the first round in Kolkata on March 17 but their captain Angelo Mathews said he could only hope Malinga would be fit.
Before that game, Sri Lanka have two warm-up games on March 10 and 14 - New Zealand in Mumbai and Pakistan in Kolkata - but Malinga won't play those fixtures.
"We are hoping Lasith would be fit for the first game," Mathews said. "As of now he won't be playing the practice games. We want him to rest and recover because we know the quality he has in him - he can train a couple of days and walk straight into a match. So we are hoping that he'll get a couple of net sessions before the first game. That is only a hope. We don't really know what the doctors and physios (have on) the current situation."
Malinga did not travel to India with the Sri Lanka squad, remaining at home to focus on his rehab. He has had an injured left knee for a while now and returned to competitive cricket after a three-month layoff only to play one match in the recent Asia Cup. Subsequently he stepped down as Sri Lanka's Twenty20 captain because he could not guarantee being fit for the entire WT20.
"It is unfortunate that Malinga is not fit as yet so he had to take that call. But he is a very vital, very important person in our team so we kept him in the squad hoping that he will be able to play the first game."
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo