File photo of Ian BellĀ© AFP
Former England player Ian Bell was appointed as Sri Lanka’s batting coach for the three-match Test series against England on Tuesday. Sri Lanka Cricket said the 42-year-old former right-handed batsman was hired to leverage his experience playing 118 Tests for England. “We have appointed Ian to bring in someone with local knowledge who can provide key insights into conditions there for our players,” Sri Lanka Cricket chief executive Ashley De Silva said. “We believe his input will be beneficial to our team on this important tour.” Sri Lanka have appointed former captain Sanath Jayasurya to replace Chris Silverwood, who resigned as coach following their early exit from the T20 World Cup last month.
Jayasuriya, 55, will serve as “interim” coach until a permanent head coach is appointed for the national team.
Jayasuriya represented Sri Lanka 586 times across three formats of the game, scoring 42 centuries and taking 440 wickets. He played his last international match in 2011.
Former England coach Silverwood, 49, has resigned for “personal reasons”, according to Sri Lanka Cricket.
Sri Lanka won just one match in the T20 World Cup tournament, against the Netherlands, and finished third in their group behind South Africa and Bangladesh.
Silverwood took over in April 2022 and had immediate success as Sri Lanka won the T20 Asia Cup that year.
Sri Lanka have qualified for the 2023 50-over Asia Cup final.
However, they failed to qualify for the knockout stages in the 2022 T20 World Cup and last year’s 50-over World Cup.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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