On 8 March 2016, Mathews was appointed as the T20I captain as well, due to continuous injuries of Lasith Malinga. On 17 August 2016, under Mathews' captaincy, Sri Lanka whitewashed Australia, which was at the Number 1 in Test rankings. This was the second time that Sri Lanka managed to Whitewash a major Test side in their history. Before that, West Indies who were led by Brian Lara were white washed in a three test series in 2001, and apart from that only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have been whitewashed.