Sri Lanka head coach Nic Pothas feels that the failure against India earlier this year taught them a few lessons and they will not be intimidated by the recent performances of the hosts since they are a much better team now, united by a culture and discipline.

India had whitewashed Sri Lanka in all formats – three Tests, five ODIs and one T20I — when they toured the Island nation in July-September.

Talking to the reporters, the coach said, “Thanks for reminding us now (the defeats). It’s always a pleasure to come here and challenge ourselves against a very very good team.”

After their forgettable India series, Sri Lanka bounced back and beat Pakistan 2-0 in UAE in the Test series. Describing the same, Pothas said, “We learned how Indian team does well and the areas we needed to improve.”

When asked what changed in such a short span of two months, he replied: “It’s internal – the discipline, the culture and how the teams stick together. When we took on India, we were all pretty new from the support staff and the players involved.”

Emphasizing on the need to focus on their strengths, Pothas urged, “We focus on ourselves. The mistake you can make here is come and be infatuated with the Indian side and concentrating too much on them. We know they are a good side. But we played them months ago.”

He further added, “We are concentrating on our strengths and jobs. If we execute them well, it will be a challenging series. Not many teams have come here and won. Sometimes you can get hung up on weaknesses. We go the other way and focus on what we do well.”

They managed to whitewash Pakistan in the UAE and the coach said the conditions coupled with Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan’s absence made their job easier. Sri Lankan coach concluded, “It was a completely different series against Pakistan. We were there in 41 degrees heat and they had lost two legends. That probably made a little bit easier for us.”