Jayawardene sets sights on India

Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, wants to avenge the defeat in the one-day series against India at home in July-August 2008, saying that it had "hurt badly". Jayawardene has already turned his focus on India's upcoming visit, a day after Sri Lanka clinched the ODI series in Pakistan 2-1.

India had bounced back from a 2-1 loss in the Test series in 2008 and won the ODIs 3-2. "The defeat to India hurt us badly and we are now looking forward to turning things around this time," Jayawardene said. "India are shaping up well in both forms of the game. We beat them in Tests but lost the one-day matches, so it would be a good series and we will try to keep the momentum going."

Sri Lanka have struggled in their recent one-day assignments. They were stretched in the last three ODIs on their tour of Zimbabwe in November, and were beaten by Bangladesh in the league stage of the recent tri-series. They were in danger of losing the tri-series final to the hosts too, but recovered from 6 for 5 to chase a modest total in Mirpur. However, their batsmen found form against Pakistan, and posted large totals in the final two ODIs to help Sri Lanka win the series.

"We have had problems with consistency in our batting in recent series, being bowled out for low totals," Jayawardene said. "But the good thing is we still managed to win, and that shows the character in the team. It has been a good series for us in Pakistan and the batting has also started to click, so it's a good sign before we take on India."

India have also been in good ODI form, following their victory in Sri Lanka by thrashing England 5-0 at home. The five-ODI series in Sri Lanka begins on January 28 and the teams will also play a Twenty20 international on February 10.