Colombo: Following his side's series win against India, Sri Lanka interim head coach Sanath Jayasuriya revealed that the team management is working really hard with young players like Dunith Wellalage, Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando and skipper Charith Asalanka and revealed the role of a surprising name in team's success in the 50-over series.
Avishka Fernando's 96-run knock and Dunith Wellalage's five-wicket haul helped Sri Lanka clinch a 110-run win over India in the third ODI match of the series at the R Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday. It was India's first ODI assignment after their heartbreaking loss to Australia in the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup at home last year in November and ahead of next year's Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan. With the dominating victory, the hosts won the series 2-0. It is the first time in the past 27 years that Sri Lanka won an ODI series against India.
Speaking after the match to the broadcaster, Jayasuriya said, "We have been working with players like Wellalage, Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Asalanka, all are very young players. (Wanindu) Hasaranga got injured and (Jeffrey) 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 legendary Sri Lankan all-rounder also revealed that the team did a week-long programme with Rajasthan Royals (RR) Director of High Performance Zubin Bharucha in which players learnt to play long innings by batting for two to three hours and gained confidence.
"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," said Jayasuriya.
"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 one team in the world," he added.
After losing the T20I series by 3-0, Sri Lanka faced injury concerns, with Hasaranga and pacer Dilshan Madhushanka among those who were injured. Jayasuriya, who was a part of the Lankan team that beat India back in 1997 and scored heaps of runs, reflected on the team's success.
"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," said Jayasuriya.
"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.", he signed off.
With the dominating victory, the hosts won the series 2-0 against Rohit Sharma's Men in Blue. This is the first time in the past 27 years that Sri Lanka won an ODI series over India.
