Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews yesterday said he was happy to enter the ICC Champions Trophy tournament as 'the underdogs'.
"All the teams are quite even, I think in the past few months we have had a few lapses here and there. Nobody will give us a chance, to be really honest, but we are happy to enter the tournament as underdogs," Mathews said in his pre-tournament press conference yesterday.
"We are confident, we have prepared extremely well. In Sri Lanka and England for the past few days, it's been really good. All the teams are quite even but it's on the given day, the guys who make less mistakes will win. It can be England, it can be us, it can be anyone. Everyone has got a chance, no one can write anyone off and I'm sure it will be a very exciting tournament."
Mathews drew confidence from Sri Lanka's performance against England in 2014 when they beat the hosts 3-2 in the ODI series. Although the current team bears a little different look from the unit that featured in that series, the 29-year-old said that they were looking to use that as an experience.
"We are a team where we stick to our basics. We've played pretty well in England, especially in 2014, so we will try to take a leaf out of it. We are a pretty young, inexperienced team, but a few of us have played in England. Anyone can change a game at any given stage. We have got the talent, the skill in the team, it's just that we have to go out there and express ourselves."
Sri Lanka's bowling has been bolstered by the inclusion of a fully-fit Lasith Malinga, who, of late, has restricted himself to playing only T20 cricket. "(Malinga) is fully fit. We look forward to utilising him in the matches. He got here a few days back. He's very keen to get on the park. He hasn't played 50-over games in the recent past but he has played a lot of games in the IPL which is very intense."
"He's been doing a lot of training as well. He is confident, we are confident as well. We all know he is a match winner, he has proven himself over the past many years. He can win us a game single-handedly, so we are looking forward to it."
(With input from Cricbuzz)
