Sri Lankan star to miss Australian tour

Sri Lanka will be without former skipper Angelo Mathews for their Test tour of Australia after the star batsman suffered a hamstring injury.

Mathews is a notable omission from Sri Lanka’s 16-man squad for the two-Test series in Brisbane and Canberra starting later this month.

Mathews injured himself on the recent tour of New Zealand and while there was an outside chance he would be fit for the second Test of the series at Manuka Oval, he was not named by selectors on Tuesday.

Australia will name their squad on Wednesday.

Mathews was Sri Lanka’s best batsman in their two-Test series against the Black Caps, scoring 258 runs and being dismissed only once.

He scored an unbeaten 120 in the first Test in Wellington, batting through the entire fourth day with Kusal Mendis to help his side escape with a draw.

The rest of Sri Lanka’s squad is largely the same from the New Zealand series, led by skipper Dinesh Chandimal, batting young gun Mendis and star off-spinner Dilruwan Perera.

Sri Lanka have never won a Test match from 13 attempts in Australia, including a 0-3 whitewash on their most recent tour Down Under in 2012-13.

However, they beat Australia 3-0 on home soil in 2016.

The tourists will play a three-day tour match against a Cricket Australia XI in Hobart next week before the first Test begins in Brisbane on January 24.

Sri Lanka Test squad: Dinesh Chandimal (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dhananjaya de Silva, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Kusal Perera, Dilruwan Perera, Lakshan Sandakan, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera, Kasun Rajitha

Domain Test Series v Sri Lanka

Australia: Tim Paine (c/wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Will Pucovski, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle

Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dhananjaya de Silva, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Kusal Perera, Dilruwan Perera, Lakshan Sandakan, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera, Kasun Rajitha

CA XI: Joe Burns (c), Kurtis Patterson (vc), Scott Boland, Jake Doran (wk), Jon Holland, Marnus Labuschagne, Michael Neser, Will Pucovski, Jason Sangha, Matt Renshaw, Chris Tremain

Jan 17-19: Tour match, CA XI v SL, Hobart (D/N)

Jan 24-28: First Test, Gabba (D/N)

Feb 1-5: Second Test, Canberra