Cricket: Sri Lanka looking to bounce back against NZ

Sanath Jayasuriya is back with the team. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

New Zealand's apparent favouritism heading into the series against Sri Lanka is not cutting any ice with star all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya.

The former Sri Lankan skipper and his team-mates will arrive tomorrow to play four one-day internationals against New Zealand, beginning with the opening game in Queenstown on Saturday.

Sri Lanka have plummeted to sixth place on the ICC's one-day ladder, following a 6-1 loss in India last month and more power struggles between the country's national cricket board and their Government.

However, Jayasuriya told AFP in Colombo that he was confident Sri Lanka would bounce back against the New Zealand team, before crossing the Tasman and giving a good account of themselves against South Africa and Australia.

"We've had a lot of success against New Zealand in one-dayers and I am expecting the momentum to flow, even though we haven't done so well in the past few weeks," said Jayasuriya, who was last month sensationally axed from the test team.

"New Zealand is a nice country. I made my debut there 15 years ago so obviously I have fond memories."

One of just four players to have scored more than 10,000 ODI runs, the 36-year-old left-hander was left out of last month's test team because of fitness and form, although his absence caused such an outcry that a ministerial inquiry was ordered.

New Zealanders, at least, will need no convincing of his batting threat after he posted 140 against them at Bloemfontein in 1994, 103 at Auckland in 2001, 107 in Sharjah the same year, and the most painful of all, a match-winning 120 at the 2003 World Cup.

"Nobody likes to get dropped out of the side," he said of his recent setback. "But the break helped me work on my game, and I am glad to get back into the team."

As for the four games against New Zealand, a continuation of last year's five-match series that was called off after the Boxing Day tsunami, Jayasuriya said the contests would mark the start of an extremely challenging couple of months.

"The competition is going to be very tough, especially the Australian leg of the tour," he said. "It's a big task for us to regroup and get back to winning ways.

"Australia is the toughest place to tour, and the challenges you face are enormous. But the expectations in Sri Lanka are always high, and we have got to be at our very best."