We got lot of lessons from Sri Lanka loss: Cummins

Australia captain Pat Cummins felt that the loss by innings and 39 runs in the second Test against Sri Lanka will have taught his team lessons of playing in the sub-continent.

After winning the first Test by 10 wickets, Australia were undone by the brilliance of Dinesh Chandimal (206 not out) and debutant spinner Prabath Jayasuriya's 12-177 across two innings in the second Test at Galle.

"I think half our batting lineup and half our bowling lineup has not played a lot over here in the subcontinent. So the experience on these two vastly different wickets [in Galle]... I think we got a lot of lessons out of it to take to India next year," Cummins said in press interaction on Monday.

Australia had centuries from Steve Smith (145 not out) and Marnus Labuschagne (104) as they posted 364 in the first innings, but crumbled on the fourth day to a second innings total of 151 to share the Warne Muralitharan Trophy.

Cummins felt that besides Smith, no one else stuck around at the crease which denied them a good first innings total.

"Some batters went out with a really clear plan, and you just get a ball with your name on it earlier than you would've liked. Unfortunately none of us hung around with Smith long enough to get up to the 400-plus, which meant even if we were out there for 180 overs you were kind of level at the turn. That was probably an opportunity missed. The way we set up the game on day one, we were hoping to get 400-plus, which history suggests here puts you in a really good position," Cummins said.

Cummins admitted that after dismissing Sri Lanka for 554, their plans to bat out the penultimate day went awry.

"Certainly as the game went on the footmarks started to react a bit more. A fresh bowling side always makes a bit of a difference as well. So it all happened pretty quickly and unfortunately we were on the wrong side. The plan had been to just bat. There were still close to five sessions left in the game. I think if we were behind by just over 100 we were still in the game, but 200 probably put it beyond us," Cummins said.