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Skipper Smith fails his first test in Sri Lanka

16th August, 2016
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Australian captain Steve Smith. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
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16th August, 2016
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Not for the first time during Australia’s doomed Test series in Sri Lanka, Steve Smith’s captaincy was a tad perplexing yesterday.

The 27-year-old has been Australian skipper for less than 12 months and undoubtedly will sharpen his tactics over time.

But these three Tests in Sri Lanka have been his first major challenge as a captain and even his most ardent supporters surely would concede he has failed.

Smith has looked lost at times, particularly as Sri Lanka’s middle-to-lower order repeatedly have rescued the hosts from precarious situations.

In all three Tests, Australia have been in a position on days two, three or four from where they could have put themselves either in strong positions or at least hauled themselves back into the Test. Each time they have faltered and Smith has been a significant part of the problem each time.

In the first Test, at Kandy, Australia had a prime opportunity to bat Sri Lanka out of the match and set up the series.

After rolling Sri Lanka for 117, Australia needed to score just 300 in their first innings on what was a decent deck and that likely would have been the match done and dusted. Australia were 2-69 when Smith played perhaps the worst shot of his career – a lurch down the pitch, an ungainly swipe, a humiliating stumping.

It would have been an immature and irresponsible stroke by a rookie, let alone a skipper. From there Australia subsided to be all out for 203, keeping Sri Lanka in the Test.

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By Day 2 of the next Test, in Galle, the visitors were on their knees, having been shot out for 106 while chasing Sri Lanka’s 281 on a blameless pitch.

Australia’s only hope of clawing their way back into the match was to keep the number of runs they would chase to 300 or less. This would be a difficult but achievable total on a strip which was not offering the bowlers major assistance.

At lunch, Sri Lanka were 3-31 in their second dig. There was the narrowest window of opportunity for Australia to come out after the break and scythe through their middle and lower order.

To that point of the series, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood had been comfortably Australia’s two best bowlers and the men responsible for reducing Sri Lanka to 3-31. It seemed obvious that pair would resume after lunch with a shiny ball only seven overs old.

Instead, Smith opted to bench both quicks in this pivotal moment and hand responsibilities over to offie Nathan Lyon and debutant Jon Holland.

The next seven overs went for 44 runs, the Lankans playing the slow bowlers with ease, just as they had done the whole series, in sharp contrast to their struggles against Starc and Hazlewood.

With the Sri Lankan lead having quickly swollen, surely it was time to reintroduce one of the quicks. Nope. “Have a bowl Adam,” Smith yelled to Voges, who must have been as shocked as the fans, commentators and the grinning batsmen.

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By the time Starc came back on to bowl, Sri Lanka’s lead was nearing 300 with six wickets in hand, and captain Angelo Mathews was well set. The moment had passed. Whatever slight opportunity Australia had of a comeback had dissipated.

At Colombo, Smith’s handling of his bowlers has been similarly ponderous. In the first innings, even with the ball reverse swinging, he did not use all-rounder Moises Henriques and employed Mitch Marsh only as an after-thought. After snaring seven wickets at an average of 20 in the first two Tests, Hazlewood bowled only 18 out of 141 overs in Sri Lanka’s first innings, and 12 out of 95 overs in their second dig.

From the outside it has looked as though Smith has no confidence in any of his bowlers bar Starc and Lyon. A member of the 2015 ICC Test Team of the Year, Hazlewood is lethal with the new ball, yet in Sri Lanka’s past three innings he has had little chance to exploit it.

In the second innings at Galle, Hazlewood bowled one over with the new ball, took a wicket and then immediately was dragged for Lyon. First innings at Colombo, Hazlewood was given two overs with the fresh cherry, conceding a solitary run, before Lyon replaced him.

In the second dig, Hazlewood was treated like a change bowler – not only was he deprived of the new ball, but by the time he finally was used, Australia’s spinners had already wheeled down 21 overs.

Given how effective Hazlewood was in the first half of this series, it is puzzling the manner in which he since has been sidelined. Australia’s pacemen have offered them their one sole advantage over Sri Lanka, yet as the series has wound on Smith has been caught up in a battle of the spinners, something Australia never was going to win.

As a young skipper, he will learn from this, one would assume. He needs to, because if the same mistakes are repeated in India in six months’ time another whitewash is certain.

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