Nidahas Trophy: Mahela Jayawardena to mentor Sri Lanka ahead of the tournament

Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh will face off each other in the upcoming Nidahas Trophy which is all set to commence on March 6. The hosts will face the new-look Men in Blue in the opening game of the tournament in Colombo. The series marks the celebration of the 70th Independence of Sri Lanka this year. However, the home side is leaving no stone unturned in its preparation for the series and have called upon Mahela Jayawardena to mentor the team ahead of the series.

The former captain of Sri Lanka last week accepted an invitation from the coaching staff of the team to spend some time with the players. Accordingly, Mahela Jayawardena will meet the Sri Lankan cricketers at the training session in Colombo before the start of the tri-series. It will be a huge advantage for the players as the interaction with him will motivate them to do well in what is expected to be a closely fought series.

Can Sri Lanka continue their winning run?

Sri Lanka endured one of their worst years in the history of their cricket in 2017 when they lost the maximum of their matches. They were blanked by India in their own den before which the island nation had lost to Zimbabwe in the five-match ODI series. Though they’ve started the new year with a successful tour to Bangladesh under the captaincy of Dinesh Chandimal who stood in for the injured and regular captain Angelo Mathews.

Chandika Hathurusingha coaching the side has also made the difference as they won the tri-series involving Bangladesh and Zimbabwe first and then went on to win the two-match Test rubber against the home side by 1-0. They whitewashed the Tigers by 2-0 in the shortest format of the game convincingly to cap off one of their most successful tours in the recent times. It would be interesting to see the way they fare in the Nidahas Trophy now.

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