Credit: Twitter
The ICC ODI World Cup 2023 has featured a couple of upsets as Afghanistan beat defending champions England while the Netherlands got the better of South Africa. However, one team that has been struggling to find its rhythm in the World Cup is Sri Lanka, which are the only team yet to win a match in the competition. Ahead of their next game against the Netherlands, Sri Lanka Cricket has announced Angelo Mathews and Dushmantha Chameera as their travelling reserves.
Sri Lanka will face the Netherlands, who will be high on confidence after beating South Africa, at the Ekana Sports Stadium in Lucknow on Saturday, October 21. Ahead of their fixture, Sri Lanka announced Angelo Mathews and Dushmantha Chameera as travelling reserves to "ensure that the team has ready replacements in place to face contingencies."
Sri Lanka Cricket took to Twitter and wrote, "Sri Lanka Cricket wishes to announce that Angelo Mathews and Dushmantha Chameera will join the team in India as traveling reserves. The Sri Lanka Cricket Selectors took this decision in order to ensure that the team has ready replacements in place to face contingencies, such as an injury to an existing squad member.
"Accordingly, @Angelo69Mathews and @dushmantha05 will join the team tomorrow. Sri Lanka’s next game will be against the Netherlands, which will be played in Lucknow on October 21st."
Sri Lanka opened their World Cup campaign against South Africa at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi as the Proteas registered the highest-ever total in an ODI World Cup match. The island nation went on to lose the game by 102 runs, however, many believed they would bounce back to winning ways against Pakistan in their next fixture at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Sri Lanka lost their second match against Pakistan by six wickets despite scoring a mammoth total of 344 runs. In their third game, Sri Lanka faced Australia, who also lost their first two matches, at the Ekana Sports Stadium in Lucknow. The Aussies registered their first victory in the CWC 2023 with a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka with 88 balls remaining.