
Sanath Jaysuriya: The Sri Lanka Cricket Board has appointed its former veteran player and former captain Sanath Jaysuriya as the head coach of the national team till the 2026 T20 World Cup. He had earlier served as the interim coach of the team. During his tenure, the Sri Lankan team registered important victories against India and England.
He was made the coach for the home series against India and the Test series against England and New Zealand. Ever since he became the coach of the Sri Lankan team, the performance of the team has been excellent. It was the time when Chris Silverwood resigned from the post of coach only after the T20 World Cup 2024 this year.
Sri Lanka’s strong performance with Sanath Jaysuriya as coach
After Sanath Jayasuriya became the coach of the Sri Lankan team, the Sri Lankan team defeated the Indian cricket team in the ODI series after 27 years. Apart from this, the Sri Lankan team also won the Test match in England. Apart from this, the Sri Lankan team defeated the New Zealand team 2-0 in a 2-match Test series. Due to his performance, he has now got this post till 2026.
Sanath Jaysuriya has won the World Cup for Sri Lanka
This legendary Sri Lankan player Jaysuriya played a very important role in getting his team the World Cup in the year 1996. At that time, he scored 221 runs in 6 matches played in the entire tournament at an average of 36.83 and a strike rate of 131.54. His highest score at that time was 86 runs. Along with that, he also scored two half-centuries in the entire tournament. While bowling, he also took 7 wickets in the tournament. Due to his brilliant performance, he was chosen as the Player of the Tournament.
International career of Sanath Jaysuriya
If we talk about the international career of this legendary player, he has scored 6,973 runs in 110 matches in Test cricket and has also taken 98 wickets. Apart from this, he scored 13,430 runs in 433 innings of 445 ODIs at an average of 32.36 and a strike rate of 91.20. And he has also taken 323 wickets in this format. Apart from this, this legend has scored 629 runs in 30 innings of 31 T20 Internationals with the help of 4 half-centuries.
Sanath Jaysuriya has also been a consultant for the Sri Lanka cricket team
Sri Lanka Cricket appointed this legendary player as a full-time cricket consultant in December 2023. The board declared his tenure for 1 year in the team. Then the board had put many big responsibilities on his shoulders. At that time, he was looking after the high performance of the team as well as the training and coaching needs of all the associated teams. Before him, this responsibility was being handled by another former Sri Lankan great player, Mahela Jayawardene.
ALSO READ: Top 5 Highest Team Totals by India in T20I Cricket