Sri Lanka registered a comfortable win at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday and with that, they registered a series win by 2-0 as well. They had beaten India in a series for the first time in 27 years as well. And, Interim head coach Sanath Jayasuriya was happy with the achievement as well. Having lost the T20I series 3-0 in Kandy, Sri Lanka faced a host of injury problems and came into the series as underdogs. Jayasuriya was proud of how his young squad fought back in Colombo as well.
“It was a very long wait because that series I played in 1997 and got a lot of runs in that series. That was the last series we won against India. After 27 years, I am part of the team and I am very happy to be part of these boys. They are a very nice bunch of players and are talented and the whole country would have seen what we can do. The boys went through a very, very hard time. Even during the T20 series we played well but the result was not what was expected. The players realised what went wrong when we came back to Colombo and they started to play well.”, Sanath Jayasuriya added.
“We have been working with players like Wellalage, Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Asalanka, all are very young players. Hasaranga got injured and Vandersay has been there for a long time but never got the opportunity and when we gave the opportunity, he grabbed it with both hands,” the coach again said.
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He further added that a seven-day coaching programme with Zubin Bharucha was helpful for the side. The Director of High Performance at Rajasthan Royals wanted each batter to play a long innings to build confidence as well, which is also what the players needed, as per Jayasuriya.
“I got Zubin from Rajasthan Royals and he came and did a seven day coaching programme. We learnt a lot, the players learnt a lot on how to bat long innings, and one batsman was batting 2-3 hours. That gave the batters a lot of confidence. The players only need confidence. If they get some runs on the board, if they are bowling well, if someone gets starts and gets big runs, so those are the little things they can get the confidence high. At the end of the day, we have beaten the Number 1 team in the world,” he stated.
However, despite Sri Lanka’s historic performance, Sanath Jayasuriya is likely to return to his regular role as a high-performance manager after the tour of England. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka have been searching for a permanent candidate for the role of head coach since Chris Silverwood resigned in June post the T20 World Cup as well.
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“Sri Lanka cricket is looking for a coach at the moment. I stepped in for two series: the India series and the England series. They will look for a coach, I’m there as an in-charge for high performance but I will support Sri Lanka cricket. I must thank SLC, they have given everything possible for the players and for our support staff. Also, I hope they will find a good coach to bring these youngsters to a higher level and continue the winning streak,” Sanath Jayasuriya concluded. “They [players] all want to go back to the hotel because they need the dance, they need to do the victory dance in the dressing room and then back in the hotel.”
