Ratnayake will be assisted by former first-class batter Ruwin Peiris, who will be with the team as interim batting coach
Ratnayake has taken on the role of interim coach before, usually when the team was in between permanent appointments. He has also repeatedly served as the side’s bowling coach. His current permanent role with SLC is as fast bowling coach at the high-performance centre. Peiris, meanwhile, is also presently a coach attached to the high performance centre.
Zimbabwe’s tour of Sri Lanka runs from January 16 to January 21. Sri Lanka’s next major assignments are the T20I tour of Australia, in mid-February, closely followed by a two-Test tour of India. The board is expected to have named a permanent head coach by then.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo’s Sri Lanka correspondent. @afidelf