Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka commended interim head coach Sanath Jayasuriya after his team defeated India in a historic ODI series in Colombo.

Following their elimination from the T20 World Cup group stage earlier this year, former England head coach Chris Silverwood resigned, giving Jayasuriya control over the men's national squad.

It was far back in 1997 when India last lost an ODI series against Sri Lanka. It's interesting to note that Jayasuriya won Player of the Series in that year. To the pleasure of the home crowd, the former captain of Sri Lanka led his team to victory this time around from the sidelines as they produced a spectacular display at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

"We all know how much Sanath Jayasuriya has done for the country. He shares his experience with us, and players like me and Dunith [Wellalage]. He's especially good because he's also a left-hander. He wants to win matches and he inspires that desire to win games in us as well. He's created a good environment that's conducive to us performing well. This is just the start. There's a long way to go. As a captain that's the journey I want to go on with everyone in the team,” Asalanka said.

"As a captain I wanted 15 good individuals. I frequently say that I want good players on the coaching staff as well. It's not like two or three years ago, right now we've got players like Pathum Nissanka, Avishka Fernando, Wellalage, Wanindu, and Sadeera who have made the team stable and played more than 40 matches. It's not like at the start.

"As a team we tried to create a good environment, after talking to the coach. We tried to give a lot of freedom to our players and to show their talent. We don't put much pressure on them. We identify what the positives and negatives are and we back their strength. If they fail it's not a problem. If you have that backing you can play against a good team like this. In the T20s though we lost there were positives in our top order. I knew as a captain that when we play to our potential, we can compete against the best."