A fine time to shine for Angelo Mathews

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews led by example during Day 4 of the first Test match against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews. AFP

The Sri Lankan captaincy is a vexed appointment, surpassed in its complications perhaps only by the Pakistan captaincy.

The peculiar combination of political pressures, with those of a permanently creaky board and the everyday stresses of captaincy, are almost unique.

It is not within the capabilities of many men, and even those who last leave with scars. Mahela Jayawardene, a fresh innovator of a leader, was spent after a three-year stint.

A man with the stature of Kumar Sangakkara could handle it only for a couple of years. Tillakaratne Dilshan never looked like being a long-haul man and he was done in less than a year.

Angelo Mathews was the next big thing when he arrived in Sri Lanka cricket, cursed at first for being that rare species, a genuine all-rounder.

He is not that anymore, really, unless in limited-overs cricket. His ascent to leadership has been some time in the making, even if he is the youngest to hold the post.

This will not be easy, but he could not have made a better start against a major opponent than he has in Abu Dhabi, all but guiding his side to safety with a career-best 116, and maybe, just maybe, even an improbable and glorious triumph.

How he fares in the field will only become apparent over time, but in Jayawardene, he still has a very, very sharp head to bounce ideas off.

As for how he leads by example, with bat in hand, he will not be able to set a better template than he has at Zayed Cricket Stadium, where he showed on the first day what Test-match batting requires.

There was both discretion and ballast in his strokeplay, and intelligence and selflessness in how he farmed the strike with the tail.

In the second innings, his example was adopted by others.

Kaushal Silva on Thursday and Dinesh Chandimal through half of Day 4 yesterday provided a platform for Mathews, 26, to play what must be his finest Test innings to date.

Over the years, Mathews’s limited-overs prowess – he is an all-action star in the 20 and 50-over formats – has overshadowed the fact that he is, or can be, a very solid Test bat.

Yesterday was proof of it.

Sri Lanka were still in much strife when he faced the first ball of the day, also his first ball of the innings.

To be there, over seven hours later, forward pressing another ball away from harm from Saeed Ajmal, was a monumental achievement, built on strength, patience and the little snippets of adventure that so illuminate his game in colours.

The importance of this hundred, whatever the result, should not be underplayed.

“Played like a captain,” Chandimal said, and as one of the newer members of a side that will at some point soon lose the services of their two greatest batsmen and finest leaders, it is a telling impression.

It is impossible to say right now how far Mathews will go, which is a comment not on him but the environment in which he leads.

It is equally difficult, though, on the basis of this Test, to see him not being there for a while yet.