Coach Graham Ford hopes T20 loss will have a positive effect on Sri Lanka

Graham Ford’s second innings as coach of the Sri Lankan team began in style but the “inexperienced” team could not sustain the momentum in the remaining two games going down 1-2 to India in the three-match T20 series on Sunday.

Ford believes the loss against a strong Indian team would be a huge learning curve for his young side ahead of the ICC World T20 to be played in India in March-April this year.

“Hopefully it (the series loss) does have an effect. But a positive one. It is important that we learn from these situations. I feel it has shown some of the young lads that they need to work hard to improve in certain areas,” he said.

Throwing light on the crushing defeat in the third T20 in Vizag, Ford said: “Unfortunately, we failed to adjust to the conditions quickly and found ourselves well behind the game early on. And to their credit, the Indian bowlers were really good in those conditions.”

The 55-year-old coach stressed upon the fact that it was early days in his second stint as the coach and added everyone in the set up understood that Sri Lanka were going through a rebuilding phase.

“It has been good to see the character, energy and attitude shown by these youngsters. Their inexperience was however shown up by the high quality Indian team. We clearly have a lot of work to do but pleasingly there is talent to work with,” he added.