Sri Lanka’s newly appointed head coach Sanath Jayasuriya has shared that all he did during his interim role was give the players confidence as they were down mentally as well. The veteran also believes the players have done the hard work over the years, but underlined the need for luck at the same time as well.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Jayasuriya said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo: “What I have always said is that it’s all about confidence and trust. I created that around the team and that’s very important. And I think there was a little bit of luck also. You may do a lot of work, but you need that luck sometimes. At the same time, the players are determined to do well. They know what they went through over the last couple of years.”

“They were really down and I asked the people to support the Sri Lanka cricketers. They are a good bunch of cricketers and they are talented. Only thing I gave was confidence, and I am there with them. They can talk to me and discuss anything,” Jayasuriya added.

However, three consecutive wins over England and New Zealand have also put Sri Lanka in the frame to play in the World Test Championship (WTC) final next year as well. They are currently placed third with a win percentage of 55.56 as well. India and Australia are only before them with win percentages of 74.24 and 62.50, respectively.

“A very key area at the moment is the analysing department. That’s why Sri Lanka Cricket has invested a lot of money to the ‘brain centre’. We got some support from India too recently to educate our analysis department. It was very successful. And every tour we get data on the opposition, we go through it and discuss every detail,” he concluded.