Sri Lanka all-rounder Angelo Mathews, who was recently appointed as the limited-overs captain of the national team, has been ruled out of the ongoing tri-series in Bangladesh. Sri Lanka have lost both their matches in the tournament thus far. While they lost their first match to Zimbabwe agonizingly by 12 runs, the island nation suffered a humiliating 163-run defeat in the second encounter against the hosts.

Mathews’ right hamstring is causing a problem for him since January 2017 and the injury popped up once against during the game against Zimbabwe on Wednesday. Consequently, the 30-year-old missed the match against Bangladesh on Friday.

"Angelo [Mathews] is going back tomorrow to do rehab in Sri Lanka. We will then look at when we can bring him back, if he is fit," sources confirmed to Cricbuzz.

Mathews's absence will certainly hurt the Lankans given their recent performances across all formats. The ace all-rounder had stepped down from the post of captaincy after Sri Lanka’s 2-3 ODI series loss against Zimbabwe last year.

However, Sri Lanka’s losing streak didn’t stop even after Mathews’ resignation as they got whitewashed by India at home across all three formats followed by another 5-0 ODI series loss against Pakistan.  Therefore, SLC decided to rope him in as the skipper of white-ball cricket once again.

In Mathews's absence, Test skipper Dinesh Chandimal led the team against Bangladesh. He is now likely to shoulder the responsibility of captaincy for the rest of the series. Sri Lanka are scheduled to play their next game against Zimbabwe on Sunday (January 21).