Former Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya has urged his boys to seize the opportunity and inflict a series whitewash on Australia. It will be a historic moment for Sri Lanka if they do manage to win the 3rd Test. Australia is currently ranked No.1 in the ICC Test rankings and they are expected to surrender their numero uno status by the end of this series.
Gaining an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series might tempt the Sri Lankans to be a bit more relaxed in the final encounter which begins in Colombo on Saturday.
But the former skipper and a member of the World Cup-winning team in 1996, Sanath Jayasuriya said that Angelo Mathews and co. can create their own piece of history by inflicting a whitewash on a leading Test playing nation for the very first time in their Test history.
"No one thought we would be leading 2-0, everybody thought it would be the other way round but we've turned it around as a team," Jayasuriya, who is now chairman of Sri Lanka's selectors, said in an interview in Colombo.
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"If we can do that (win 3-0), then it's history. So I hope the boys will realise that we have got a big opportunity."
Jayasuriya was the captain of the Sri Lankan team when they last won a Test match against Australia in the year 1999.
The unassailable lead taken by Sri Lanka came as a surprise to everyone, more so because they have been sliding down the rankings and have lost most of their recent Test matches. With a relatively inexperienced team, no one gave them a chance prior to the series but credit must be given to Mathews and his boys to grind hard and come out triumphant. A 3-0 whitewash against Australia will be the greatest achievement for Sri Lanka ever since they were granted Test status in the year 1981.
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It was a brilliant 176 from Kusal Mendis in the 1st Test that paved the way for a Sri Lankan win and in the 2nd Test it was the youngster Dilruwan Perera who picked up 10 wickets and scored a half-century that enabled Sri Lanka to take an unbeaten lead in the series. So it seems Sri Lankan future is in safe hands.
"We are in a transition period. We are going with youngsters at the moment with little or no experience," said Jayasuriya
"We had a lot of faith in them and we are very happy the way they played ... I think with the experience they will learn, but they have to start somewhere and they started in Sri Lanka."
"They won (the first two Australia Tests) and won convincingly and that's important. So the future for Sri Lankan cricket is bright." Jayasuriya concluded
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