Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka's new head coach, said that in this term of his interim tenure. He mostly worked on boosting the confidence of the players as the team was going through a very tight mental phase.

He believes that now, at 55, the team has well worked for many years but says that it does have luck.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said that Jayasuriya’s full-time coaching status has been confirmed after the stellar stint put in by the former captain as the interim coach. Sri Lanka won the ODI series against India and the Test series against New Zealand and England at the Oval under his aegis.

Talking to the press on Monday, Jayasuriya said building the confidence of the players made all the difference and that their existing skills had so much to do with the results.

Jayasuriya stated: “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.”

He also added: “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. The only thing I gave was confidence, and I am there with them. They can talk to me and discuss anything.”

Sri Lanka’s Current Performance:

Sri Lanka‘s three consecutive wins against England and New Zealand have thrown them into contention for next year’s World Test Championship (WTC) final. In third place, it trails only behind India 74.24 and Australia 62.50 on the win percentage chart.

Jayasuriya, who will assume his full-time coaching role with this white-ball series against the West Indies. Said one of the decisive factors that helped their team was the use of data ahead of every tour.