Sri Lanka Will Get Better With More Experience: Coach Mickey Arthur

Following Sri Lanka's two forgettable losses to England in the T20I series currently underway here, the visiting team coach, Mickey Arthur, is hopeful his young side will get better as it gains more experience.

Sri Lanka, who have struggled to put runs on the board, lost the opening T20I by eight wickets after posting just 129 at Cardiff on June 23.

Sri Lanka could manage only 111 in the second T20I, which they lost by five wickets on June 24. The third and final T20I will be played later on Saturday.

"Just not enough runs again. We're coming up against a really good (England) bowling attack. They're ranked No 1 in the world, we're ranked No 9, and you can see the difference. We've started a journey with a young team and for us it's about getting better, competing, learning from every game and every experience and getting better and better as we go along," Arthur told the BBC.

Sri Lanka's string of defeats has seen them lose 11 of their last 12 completed T20Is dating back to October 2019, and Arthur says the team will have to come out of its "own environment" to succeed.

"We can be more proactive and we've got to go back and work on that. We can walk around the crease a little bit more and try to do different things but our batters are learning all the time, particularly in these conditions. We've got a really exciting batting unit in our conditions but it's about transferring those skills to conditions outside our own environment.

"I thought we bowled really well. Our fielding has gone up to another level. Fielding is all about attitude, it's measurable, and I think the guys are getting better and better with that. We're really excited with our bowling unit and we've got a couple of guys that are injured as well, so when we get them back we'll be good," said the South African.