Sri Lanka Coach Jayasuriya Said, "The Boys Went Through A Very, Very Hard Time" After Historic Win Over India

Sri Lanka has created history after winning the 3-match ODI series against India by winning the last game. This is the first time since 1997 that the Island nations have won a bilateral series against Men in Blue. With this win, the Sri Lankan team answered all the questions, that they were asked after failure in 2 back-to-back ICC events 2023 and 2024, where they failed to qualify for the semi-finals. However, after defeating the World Champions, we can say that, it’s a new start for the Sri Lankan team under guidance of former cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya, who led the team as an interim coach for the India series.

It would not be wrong to say that the credit for winning the series goes to the former Sri Lankan cricketer who stood with the team after losing the 3-match T20I series before heading to the 50-over format. The credit for the win also goes to young players who believed in their skills and performed brilliantly when the main players like Matheesha Pathirana, Dilshan Madhushanka and Wanindu Hasaranga were ruled out from the series due to their respective injuries.

Throwing light on this, the head coach of the Sri Lankan team praised the effort of his players for their astounding performance as the players were going through a very tough time for the last 1 year.

"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.",

Young players like Pathum Nissanka, Jeffrey Vandersay and Dunith Wellalage were the top performers from the Sri Lankan team. Meanwhile, the captain, Charith Asalanka, also contributed by picking key players' wickets in the first and second ODI of the series with his bowling.