Australia look to beat Sri Lanka at their own game, once again

The venue might be Galle but Australia looked more at ‘home’ than Sri Lanka in the first Test. Australian spinners shared 18 wickets between them and operated at an average of 12.2 and a strike rate of 19.6. Meanwhile, the corresponding numbers for Sri Lankan spinners were 38.7 and 53.7. In the batting department, Australia managed to cross the 300-run mark in the first innings, while Dimuth Karunaratne and Co. were bundled out for scores of 212 and 113. 

That’s not it, the hosts have also been hit by multiple Covid cases and will be without Dhananjaya de Silva, Asitha Fernando, Praveen Jayawickrama, and Jeffrey Vandersay in the series-decider. The venue remains the same but Sri Lanka will have to be a lot smarter if they want to topple this in-form and fully-fit Australian side in the second and final Test, starting Friday (July 8). And, Australia would want to further strengthen their position at the top of the WTC points table.

Sweeping Lyon won’t be easy

Usman Khawaja, Cameron Green, and Alex Carey were the top scorers for Australia in the first Test and the three of them used all kinds of sweeps and paddle scoops to their advantage. The trio made 193 out of 321 that Australia managed in the first innings and close to 40 percent of those runs came via conventional sweep, reverse sweep, paddle sweep, paddle scoop, and slog sweep. What’s more important is that Green was the only one who got out while playing a sweep. The Sri Lankan batters tried to do the same against Nathan Lyon and Co. but couldn’t attain the same amount of success. 

The likes of Niroshan Dickwella (twice), Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, and Ramesh Mendis all got out while attempting one of the aforementioned shots. The key reason for that is Sri Lankan spinners don’t put the same amount of overspin on the ball and extract as much bounce as Lyon. Hence, playing cross-batted shots against the offspinner won’t be easy and Karunaratne and his men will have to find different methods to tackle the 'GOAT'.

The 34-year-old offspinner is a lot more experienced and has become a different beast altogether in Asian conditions after struggling in his initial years. Lyon has played 12 Tests in the sub-continent since 2017 and has scalped 74 wickets at an impressive average of 24.9. Amongst spinnes who have bowled at least 500 overs in Asia in this time period, only R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have better numbers than Lyon. And, like he did in the first Test, Lyon will also get ample support from Mitchell Swepson and Travis Head on this surface.

Sri Lanka’s new-look spin department

Ramesh Mendis was the only Sri Lankan bowler that managed to put some pressure on Australia. The offspinner claimed four wickets in 32 overs at an economy of 3.5 but got no support whatsoever from the other end. Yes, the Australian batters were proactive but Lasith Embuldeniya and Vandersay were very inconsistent with their lines and lengths and leaked runs at 5.64. Embuldeniya has been dropped, while Vandersay has been ruled out after testing positive for Covid. 

De Silva and Praveen Jayawickrama also won’t be available and you could expect at least two of Maheesh Theekshana, Dunith Wellalage, Lakshitha Manasinghe, Prabath Jayasuriya and Lakshan Sandakan to feature in the second encounter. The 19-year-old left-arm spinner Wellalage made his international debut during the ODI series and emerged as the leading wicket-taker. He scalped nine wickets at 22.33 and will also provide Sri Lanka some depth in the batting. Meanwhile, one of Theekshana or Sandakan could be brought in to add more variety to the bowling. 

Maxwell ahead of Head?

We all know what Head did with his part-time offspin in the third innings of the first Test but the left-hander has struggled with the bat in Asia. The 28-year-old was exceptional in the Ashes but things have quite gone as planned in the last four Tests. In three Tests in Pakistan, Head only managed 68 runs at 22.67 and was also dismissed for just 6 in the opening Test against Sri Lanka. The visitors now have the option of playing Glenn Maxwell, who hasn’t played a Test since September 2017. However, he could prove to be a like-to-like replacement, considering he also bats in the middle-order and is a handy offspinner.

Probable XIs

Sri Lanka - Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Oshada Fernando, Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Ramesh Mendis, Dunith Wellalage/Prabath Jayasuriya, Maheesh Theekshana/Lakshan Sandakan, Kasun Rajitha.

Australia - Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head/Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Swepson.