Sri Lanka appoint Sanath Jayasuriya as interim head coach ahead of India series

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Monday appointed former skipper Sanath Jayasuriya as the interim head coach of the senior men’s team. Jayasuriya steps into the role following the exit of Chris Silverwood after the T20 World Cup in the Americas.

According to the statement released by SLC, Jayasuriya will be the interim head coach until September 2024.

Jayasuriya will take charge after the ongoing T20 Lanka Premier League on July 21. Sri Lanka are then slated to play a limited-overs series at home against India and a tour to England in August.

Jayasuriya featured in 110 Tests between 1991 and 2007, scoring 6973 runs at an average of 40.07, with the help of 14 centuries and 31 fifties.

In the 445 ODIs he played, the left-hander struck 13,430 runs at an average of 32.36, with 28 hundreds and 68 half centuries.
He was a key member of the Sri Lankan team that won 1996 ODI World Cup. He also served as Member of Parliament from 2010-15.

Former England coach Silverwood had stepped down from the role after Sri Lanka’s poor finish in the T20 World Cup. According to Sri Lanka Cricket, Silverwood had cited “personal reasons” for vacating the position.

Sri Lanka won only one game at the T20 World Cup and finished third in their group behind South Africa in Bangladesh. Silverwood took over the reins in April 2022 and had propelled the side to the Asia Cup title that year. The Lankans also reached the 50-over Asia Cup final in 2023 under Silverwood. However, they failed to make the knockouts of both the T20 World Cup in 2022 and the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.

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