Sanath Jayasuriya: 5-0 defeat to India could be a blessing in disguise

Sanath Jayasuriya expects SL to bounce back strongly

Sri Lankan great and chief selector Sanath Jayasuriya has said that his side’s 5-0 hammering at the hands of India was a bad dream and expected his cricketers to put up a better show in the upcoming series against England. The Lankans failed to win a single game on their tour of India, even losing their warm-up game prior to the start of the ODI series.

Jayasuriya, who scored an incredible 7 centuries against the Indians including a career-best 189 in Sharjah in 2000, said that it was good that this whitewash came 90 days before the World Cup and could well serve as a motivation for the side to do well in the forthcoming series.

"This defeat in a way before the World Cup is like a blessing in disguise. Going through a bad patch I don't mind that because there are 90 more days to go. If the team can start peaking from the England and New Zealand series till the end of the World Cup, that would be ideal," he said.

The former left-handed opener said that despite having very little expectations from the team, he was shocked to see them surrender in such an abject manner.

“India is a bad dream and it is not the first time we have gone through a series like this. I was not expecting miracles for Sri Lanka to win the series in India and all that kind of thing. What I expected was good, competitive cricket," the 45-year old told ESPN Cricinfo.

As many as five Indian batsmen notched up centuries in the series that included a world record innings of 264 by Rohit Sharma while the visitors managed to score just 2.The 1996 World Cup winner said that he felt sad to see his batsmen not put up enough big scores on the board.

"If we are to play competitively, somebody had to bat a long innings like the Indian batsmen were doing. One of the top four needed to bat for 40 overs,” Jayasuriya said.

He also urged all the fans to stand by the team and not react angrily to the loss.

"It is not only the cricketers but all of us have to take the blame for the Indian defeat.We can't push the players into a corner, this is the time we need to support them. The entire country needs to support them," he added.