The Sri Lankan batting side proved to be incompetent against England's bowling line-up in the first Test at Galle. They were bowled out for 135 with spinner Dom Bess picking a fifer.
The home side's batting coach Grant Flower, like many Sri Lankan fans, was extremely disappointed with the performance from his side and stated it to be the 'worst performance he ever saw'.
Flower told ESPNCricInfo, "I can't explain it. I've been with the team for a year. It's the worst batting I've seen. It's purely mental I think. I don't have many reasons to explain that. Every single batsman should take the blame. They've only got themselves to blame."
"One of the guys was unlucky - Dasun Shanaka - when it came off Jonny Bairstow's ankle. But the rest just got themselves out. There was some decent bowling, but the pitch isn't a minefield," he added.
Grant Flower revealed that he would talk to the players and get to know the reasons why such a thing happened.
The 50-year-old said, "I can't give much technical advice. I can only talk to them about the mental aspect, and ask them what they were thinking regarding their dismissals.
I've only spoken to a few as well as the coach. I'm at a loss for words. I've never seen us bat that badly. Whether it was nerves or coming back from South Africa (or something else)."
"But they know these conditions so well, so they should have had a big advantage over England. But the England batsmen showed us this afternoon there's nothing wrong with the pitch so far. It's going to get worse, but today it played well and we batted terribly," he added.
(With inputs from ESPNCricInfo)
