Mahela Jayawardene
Mahela Jayawardene
Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene, known as Mahela Jayawardene, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team. He is widely regarded as one of the greats of modern cricket due to his masterful technician oozing class of batting, regarded amongst the best batsman against spin, along with his long time team mate and friend, Kumar Sangakkara and a legend in the history of the game. Jayawardene's highest test score, 374 against South Africa...
ProfessionCricket Player
Date of Birth27 May 1977
CityColombo, Sri Lanka
Marvin and I have been a partnership for quite some time now, so our thinking is in the same direction. It is a temporary thing for me to take the team.
I don't think leading Sri Lanka is that much of a pressure. We've got some really talented youngsters, so hopefully we can give them some exposure. We have not played Bangladesh for quite a while and we are very much looking forward to this tour.
He moves the ball, is difficult for batsman to read and he is not slow. He is the sort of bowler that Pakistan has not had for some time and we know need to look after him.
It was one of the best Australian summers for Sri Lanka ever. Brett was bowling very quick, on very quick tracks, but we settled ourselves and knew exactly what to do. We worked very hard to get used to those conditions, and we will do the same here.
He is a player that is maturing fast and the challenge for him now is to work hard on his bowling and batting.
I am not happy at all. Our star batsmen failed to play big innings.
No problems with him right now, I can say there is 90 percent chance of him playing tomorrow morning.
The one-day series is gone and we cannot dwell on that.
That's how the game goes and I don't want to say anything beyond that.
This is going to be a tough tour but a great opportunity for us to learn, both as a team and also as individuals.
It was a very difficult day for us,
Chaminda (Vaas) is going to be very important for the England tour (in May) and we don't want to take any risks with him so he'll only play if he's 100 percent fit for the match.
He has taken 580-odd wickets in Test cricket. So every team will want to have him in the side. His presence here for the Test is of course a big encouragement for us.
We want to win everything we play. So we are here for win with a high confidence.