Angelo Mathews

His first-class career started in 2007-08. In his second season he made 696 runs at 58 for Colts CC, which earned him a place in the Sri Lanka A team. On that side's tour of South Africa he made 99 not out in a chase of 250, and coach Chandika Hathurasingha held it up as a mature knock. Early in his international career he scored 51 against New Zealand, sharing a 137-run partnership with Thilan Samaraweera in a Sri Lankan win, and in the following game took 6/19 against India, his best figures.

Mathews was named Test captain in February 2013, succeeding Mahela Jayawardene. 2014 was a standout year: Sri Lanka won their fifth Asia Cup in March, his successive hundreds at Lord's and Headingley secured the country's first Test series win in England, the ODI series there went 3-2 their way, and Pakistan were then beaten 2-0 at home. As a finisher, he made 77 not out to help chase Australia's 239 after Sri Lanka slumped to 107-8, adding 132 with Lasith Malinga. Despite serious leg injuries, he bowls cutters in the middle overs and sometimes takes the new ball.

There were hard times too. His first ODI hundred, against India in November 2014, came in a defeat, and Sri Lanka lost all five games of that series before heavy losses in New Zealand in 2014-15. At the 2015 World Cup he hit a 20-ball fifty against Scotland, but the quarter-final loss to South Africa brought criticism of his captaincy. In 2011 a quadriceps injury suffered in the semi-final kept him out of the final. With Kumar Sangakkara and Jayawardene retired, he steered a difficult rebuild that included a home loss to India and a winless England tour before a 3-0 Test whitewash of top-ranked Australia at home.

In the IPL he struggled with Kolkata and Pune, went unsold in 2014, and was signed by Delhi Daredevils in 2015 for Rs. 7.5 crores and again in 2017. Away from the field, he married Heshani Silva in a Colombo church in July 2013, and in November 2010 a Sri Lankan magazine named him its Personality of the Year.