MUMBAI: Sri Lanka suffered a setback when its injured all-rounder Angelo Mathews was ruled out for the World Cup Cricket final against India while Captain Kumar Sangakkara kept the cards close to his chest on whether veteran off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan will play.
26-year-old off-spinner Suraj Randiv has been brought in as a replacement for Mathews, a key player who suffered a sprain in his right thigh muscle during the side's semi-final victory over New Zealand in Colombo. Mathews left the field with a quadriceps muscle injury when Sri Lanka was fielding.
The ICC's event technical committee of the World Cup confirmed Randiv as replacement for Mathews. The confirmation was conveyed to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on behalf of the committee.
Mathews(23) has done well in the World Cup and Sri Lanka would be hit badly. He had so far scored 94 runs and has taken six wickets.
Randiv has played in 21 ODIs for Sri Lanka, claiming 22 wickets at an average of 33.5. He has also represented Sri Lanka in three Test matches and six Twenty20 internationals.
Sangakkara admitted there are injury concerns ahead of the final but did not clear the air on Muralitharan and Mathews' fitness, which has been a subject of intense speculation.
"We have got few injury worries. We have flown in people for those who are injured as cover. We will make assessments as the day goes along and then make a final decision this evening as to who is fit enough to play and what's our combination is going to be," he said at his pre-match press conference.
Muralitharan and Mathews' injury problems have forced the Sri Lankan team to call veteran paceman Chaminda Vaas and Suraj Randiv as standbys. 37-year-old Vaas played in his last and 322nd ODI in August, 2008 against India at Colombo. The wily left arm bowler has taken 400 wickets.
Muralitharan has been nursing niggles through the event, including a hamstring injury, a side strain, a troublesome knee and a groin problem.
He, however, played in the semifinal in Colombo and if he plays on Saturday, it will be Muralitharan's last international game.
Sangakkara was happy with the track prepared for the match by curator Sudhir Naik.
"The wicket looks fantastic. It looks a great wicket.
Conditions here are lot more different to conditions at home.
Sri Lankan wickets are a bit tougher. Here the wickets are even throughout the game. We are going to try and adapt to the conditions. It looks a very decent wicket and it looks pretty flat and we need to adapt accordingly," he said.
While conceding that India were the favourites to lift the World Cup, Sangakkara refused to term his own band of men as the underdogs.
"I don't think we are underdogs as such. We are a pretty good unit. We have to understand the fact that India for the last two years have been the favourites to win the World Cup.
I am sure they will be looking at themselves as favourites too. We have just come here to play as well as we can on Saturday," said Sangakkara.
"They (India) are a very good side and they have always been the favourites to win this tournament. They've got to the finals and everyone will be looking for them to keep going," he added.
On Sachin Tendulkar's quest to reach the landmark of 100 international centuries, Sangakkara said his team's job was to curtail the Indian score and prevent them from lifting the coveted Cup for the second time in the tournament's history.
"I don't think we are here to spoil anything. I guess everyone knows the importance of scoring runs in a final whether it's Sachin or anyone else. He is going to be the first player to get there (100 international tons). It all adds to the expectations of a World Cup final. Our job is to ensure that the Indian team doesn't score too many runs," he said.
"We are very confident of the fact that we have been one of the best sides in the tournament. At the same time India are playing great cricket. As I said before, they have always been favourites. They have the best batting side in the world and everyone in the world expects them to turn up on Saturday and win the game.
"I don't think we are underdogs as such. We are a pretty good unit. We have to understand the fact that India for the last two years have been the favourites to win the World Cup.
I am sure they will be looking at themselves as favourites too. We have just come here to play as well as we can on Saturday," he added.
According to Sangakkara it was important to produce controlled aggression.
"The World Cup brings the best out of players and sometimes the worst. For us World Cup is going to be about controlled aggression. Not to be too emotional about anything.
Being clinical and stay grounded. Take things as they come.
You can plan as much as possible, but things can change out there in the middle.
"Everyone's excited. But it's nice to see that it's a controlled excitement. Everyone's relaxed and having a laugh.
But also you can see that steely determination behind all that, knowing what a big job is at our hands. World Cup finals are huge occasions, so it's pretty tough," he said.
The skipper said not playing at home had both advantage and disadvantage.
"It cuts both ways, I think. Playing in front of your home crowd adds to the excitement and passion and the pride that you feel. But it also adds to the weight of expectations when you feel that the entire crowd is looking at you to do everything right. That's also tough.
"We would have loved to play at home. But that's not the way it is. We have accepted that and we will take whatever the conditions are there for us and I am sure the Indian crowd is always appreciative of a good game of cricket," he remarked.