Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said his side will have to be at their best to beat England in the five-match one-day international series which starts on Tuesday.
Mathews was speaking after overseeing a 2-0 ODI series victory over Ireland in Malahide after the second match was won by an emphatic 136-run margin on Saturday.
Opening batsman Kusal Perera, who would have missed the tour had a drugs ban not been rescinded following a faulty doping analysis, made a century to build the platform for his side's huge total of 377 for 8.
"We still can improve a lot in all departments. It was a pretty convincing victory today, but we need to be at our best to beat England," said Mathews. Eoin Morgan's England have improved dramatically in 50-over cricket since the Sri Lankans thrashed them by nine wickets in Wellington during last year's World Cup.
Saturday's win was set up by dynamic top-order batting, and Mathews said: "Perera and Danuska Gunathilaka had a brilliant opening partnership (147) and after that solid foundation it was a tactical decision to bring in the pinch-hitter and take the game forward."
Seekkugge Prasanna came in a three to pinch-hit in explosive style, bludgeoning nine sixes and five fours to leave his previous best ODI score of 42 far behind with 95 from just 46 balls.
"It was a very good wicket and a tough ask for the bowlers but we stuck to our task," explained Mathews.
"They had to bowl good lines and lengths. Having said that, after scoring 377 it was a tough ask for the Irish because they had to go at it from ball one, so we had to bowl dot balls and create pressure," the all-rounder added.
The fifth and sixth overs of the Ireland reply were maidens and when captain William Porterfield was out to the first ball of the seventh over, Ireland, who have never beaten Sri Lanka in five attempts, could not cope. It needed a last wicket stand of 54 between Andrew McBrine and former England international Boyd Rankin to get the Ireland total over 200.
The man of the series was Sri Lanka's Dasun Shanaka, who scored 42 off 19 balls and took five wickets on his debut in the tourists' 76-run win in the first match on Thursday and Mathews has high hopes for the 24-year-old.
"Shanaka is becoming a very good all-rounder for us and hopefully he will continue in the England ODIs and for the next few years," the captain said.
"We were short of seam-bowling all-rounders, but now with Farveez Maharoof, Shanaka and myself, we have plenty of options."
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