Jayasuriya: 'Karunaratne is a strong-minded player. He can do something major on this tour'

Sanath Jayasuriya is Sri Lanka's coach only in an interim capacity, as they prepare for their biggest Test series of the year. He was appointed after former coach Chris Silverwood declined to renew his contract at the end of June. Jayasuriya has tasted some success in the job so far, with Sri Lanka beating India 2-0 in the ODI series earlier this month. He spoke to ESPNcricinfo about the challenges that England, and Bazball, will present over the next few weeks.

As someone who routinely took attacks apart, including in England, in the Test format, what do you make of Bazball?
You get various styles depending on the time. Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist did it too during our time. This is something similar to what we have had in the past. There has just been some media publicity that this is something new. They try to play attacking cricket from the outset, but the end goal is to get to those totals of 300 or 400.

As someone who used to often put the opposition under pressure with your aggression, what can Sri Lanka do when England attack them?
It's in the first ten overs that there will be the most pressure I think. If you look historically, they have been attacking in that first ten overs and getting runs on the board quickly. We have got some plans to counter that. And we know this is how they will play.

We have to bowl in the right places, and if they hit the good balls, that's okay. We need to identify the right lengths given the conditions. There will be times when we need to cover the areas of the field where they are attacking, to cut down the boundaries.

This is the first time since 1998 that Sri Lanka are playing in England late in the summer. To what extent will that help?
The fact that we have got a late-summer tour is great, because a lot of wickets have been used a lot, and there's more sunshine at this time of year. It's more similar to our conditions than the early summer tours. I have made sure the players know it's a great opportunity.

You have been a consultant at the High Performance Centre since December, before being the interim coach. Could you explain more about what that role entails?
When Chris Silverwood was still the coach, my job with the national team was to consult with Chris and decide the team, to address any communication gaps with the players, and to share my experience with Chris. After his contract ended I got the India tour and England tours as interim coach.

We had a bit of responsibility during the India series, because they sent a full side. We backed our strengths and figured out our advantages, then played to those. I managed players and the coaches. On the coaching side, there was some fine-tuning to do, and the players also had to be motivated. I tried to create an environment of freedom, with the encouragement to play their natural games.

We played really well in that ODI series and beat India for the first time in 27 years. It's not something I can do myself. I had support from the other staff and SLC. Kumar Sangakkara also brought Zubin Bharucha [Rajasthan Royals team director] to run a programme for the batters, and Lasith Malinga was also involved in advising the bowlers. I'm very grateful to Sangakkara and Malinga. We need that help and we need all of them to keep contributing.

What are Sri Lanka's strengths going into this series?
We have an experienced batting order. Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal - they have all played a lot of cricket. We have the personnel there, but we need to fight hard. If you play six or seven batters, only two or three will perform for sure. If they get a start they need to play big innings. They know they have that responsibility on challenging wickets.

Everyone should play their natural game, but once you get that start, there are places where you need to break things down a little, and either bat quickly, or slow down for a bit. When the ball gets older, it can still seam here, which is the uniqueness of the Duke ball.

Opening is often pretty tough in England, but you have got Sri Lanka's most prolific Test opener in your team. How important is Karunaratne going to be?
He is a very strong-minded player. He knows what his strengths and weaknesses are, and has worked on them. He can do something major on this tour.

Several players here are single-format Test cricketers. Is there a hunger you are sensing that comes out of that?
I want to make sure there is that hunger. Playing three Tests like this, this is not an opportunity you will get easily again. So we have to take it while we can. Scoring runs here is challenging, because even if the pitches are flat, the ball can still start swinging, or seaming. We have to know how to adjust to that.

There's not quite as much experience on the seam-bowling front, though Vishwa Fernando did play three games for Yorkshire this season. How are the bowlers looking?
They have prepared well. Vishwa has played a lot of cricket, and the cricket he played in the last couple of months here in England would have been fantastic for him. He would have learned a lot and he will help the others with that. Asitha Fernando has played here a bit too. Lahiru Kumara is coming here after an injury and has a little bit of rustiness about him, but if we get his rhythm right, we will be in great shape. Others like Kasun Rajitha and Nisala Tharaka are there too.

One area in which Sri Lanka have struggled for several years on overseas tours is with injuries to fast bowlers. How have you tried to counter that?
That's something that's out of our control. The players and the physios and trainers are all doing their part in terms of strength and conditioning. We know that it will be colder here and what we need to do in those conditions. They are doing everything possible. But we have got all the bowlers that we wanted here.

What are your own plans after this tour? Sri Lanka Cricket is currently looking for a head coach…
Sri Lanka Cricket must be looking for a new coach. I think they have advertised and must be interviewing candidates now. I'm not involved in that process. I'm at the High Performance Centre. One thing I want to do is to give our batters long batting sessions, which is something that Zubin talked about. It's important for batters to get batting for two-three hours. I want to take that process forward with the other coaches and improve our batting.