Angelo Mathews has stepped down as Sri Lanka captain in all three formats in the aftermath of his team’s humiliating series defeat to Zimbabwe in the five-match One-Day International series.

The Island nation had entered the series against Zimbabwe under immense pressure, having performed poorly in the Champions Trophy where they existed at the group stage after managing just a solitary win in three games and they did little to ward off the criticism. In the first game, they managed to score 315 but lost the game before winning the next two games to take the lead in the series. However, the African team restored parity by winning the penultimate game before thoroughly outplaying their fancied opponents to register a historic series win.

After losing the final game on Monday (July 10), Mathews had indicated that he would discuss his future with the selectors and conveyed his decision to step down on Tuesday (July 11) morning. Media reports are suggesting that Dinesh Chandimal, who was not a part of the ODI squad for the Zimbabwe series, is likely to take Mathews’ place.

Mathews has been the most influential player for Sri Lanka since the departure of stalwarts like Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara and was handed the captaincy at a very young age. He became Sri Lanka’s youngest Test captain at the age of 25 when succeeded the legendary Jayawardene in 2013. Before that, the 30-year old had led the team in the limited-overs format. The most memorable moment of Mathews’ captaincy spell came when Sri Lanka whitewashed Australia 3-0 in a Test series at home last year.

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, had endured a terrible time this year in the absence of Mathews who remained on the sidelines after injuring himself during the tour of South Africa. In his absence, the island nation were whitewashed 5-0 by South Africa before winning a historic T20I series in Australia. After that, they drew with Bangladesh in Tests, ODIs and T20I at home.