Mathews has to start converting his half-centuries into hundreds to prove that he is a natural born leader

Newly appointed Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has admitted that he must start making larger contributions with the bat in future series in order to show his team that he is capable of leading by example.

Mathews’ tendency to throw his wicket away has become a disappointing trend throughout his international career and it always seems that he is dismissed during periods where Sri Lanka are under no real pressure.

In his Test career thus far, Mathews has scored 12 half-centuries, but due to his lack of concentration, he has only managed to convert one of those fifties into a century.

However, on the plus side, Mathews’ batting has become much more consistent over the past two years, whereby he has maintained a healthy average of 46.09 at the number six spot on the batting lineup.

With Mathews performing so consistently as of late, there has been talk within the Sri Lankan team management of promoting the all-rounder up the batting order with the hopes that he can make more triple figure scores.

Mathews himself knows that he has to convert his “70s and 80s” into centuries if he is to convince anyone that he truly deserves to be called the captain of the national side.

“I have worked really hard with our batting coach Marvan Atapattu and recently I have been getting those 70s and 80s and I am cross with myself that I have not been able to convert them into big ones,” Mathews said. “I don’t think I am doing the team any good by scoring 70s and 80s and getting out. It’s not doing much good for myself as well. I need to convert those 70s and 80s into big ones.”

What puzzles a lot of cricket pundits, former players and Mathews himself is the fact that his concentration and mental focus seems to take a drastic dive every time he enters the realm of the 70s.

“It could be the concentration,” Mathews added. “I’m not saying that I’m losing concentration, but when I get to the 70s I just need to get prepared mentally, specifically to go that final distance. I am pretty sure that I get a hundred I will start scoring more hundreds.”

Mathews also acknowledged the fact that it will be tough to mimic everything veteran batsman Mahela Jayawardene accomplished during his tenure as skipper.

“We will have to wait and see how it goes,” Mathews said. “Mahela has done a wonderful job. Those are not easy boots to fill and do as well as Mahela has done. It’s a tough challenge, let’s see how it goes.”

Mathews also paid tribute to wicketkeeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara, stating that he and Jayawardene had both done an “amazing” job to welcome and develop the youngsters in the team.

“Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela have played huge part in developing youngsters,” Mathews said. “When I got into the team they welcomed us and made us feel at home. They gave us lot of confidence. They tried to help us out and Sanga has been amazing.”

Despite being whitewashed 3-0 by Australia during the Test series, Mathews still believes his team are one of the best in the world across all three formats, especially given the fact that they have appeared in four International Cricket Council (ICC) finals in the past five years.

“I think we have earned it,” Mathews said. “We have played some really good cricket. Test, ODI or T20s you name it. We have got into four ICC finals in the last five years.”

However, Mathews’ priority as captain must be focused on how to improve Sri Lanka’s Test record, which has been dismal over the past three years and made even worse by the fact that they have only won one Test series in that entire period of time.