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Sri Lanka vs Australia highlights: First Test, Day 1 cricket live scores, blog

26th July, 2016
Start time: 2:30pm AEST

Teams:

Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Kaushal Silva, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Kusal Perera, 8 Dilruwan Perera, 9 Rangana Herath, 10 Vishwa Fernando, 11 Nuwan Pradeep.

Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Joe Burns, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Adam Voges, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Peter Nevill (wk), 8 Steve O'Keefe, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood.
Steven Smith continued his amazing form in India. (AFP PHOTO / GREG WOOD)
Roar Guru
26th July, 2016
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Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka begins with the first Test at Pallekele from Tuesday as the tourists look to put the inexperienced hosts to sword and establish an early lead. You can follow the live scores and blog of this match from 10am local time (2:30pm AEST).

Sri Lanka are undergoing a tough time across formats since their stalwarts Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara retired. They were pulverised in England and would have gone down 3-0 had it not been for the rain that saved them in the final Test on their recent tour.

And that Test series loss was followed by a 3-0 defeat in the ODIs before Sri Lanka went down to England in a one-off T20I.

New Zealand had earlier crushed them 2-0 in a Test series too and that leaves the Sri Lankans to try and overturn their shattered morale, poor form against Australia and an inexperienced side to try and salvage something out of this series.

Salvage might not be the most appropriate word to use even before the start of the first Test but it’s also an indicator of how heavily the odds are stacked against the home team.

And if their performances on the field haven’t been the greatest in recent times, a row about Mutthiah Muralitharan’s decision to take up a spin bowling coaching role with Australia seems to have sparked a frenzy within the Sri Lankan cricket board.

Tempers have been frayed between Muralitharan and the board, accusations have flown around and while it’s tough to say if it’s affected Sri Lanka’s preparations, it sure has added some spark to the start of the series.

From the Australian stand-point, it’s an important series in many ways.

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One, they are the top-ranked Test side going up against an inexperienced, but tricky opposition in their own backyard.

Secondly, their record against Sri Lanka has been impeccable since 1999. Of the 13 Tests played between the two sides, Australia are yet to lose any and drawn just three.

Even more interestingly, Australia have an important series coming up against India early next year and their performance against Sri Lanka could provide them with a template on how to tackle the Indians in what could be a difficult match-up.

Steven Smith has already named his playing XI, which has two spinners included in the line-up. Steve O’Keefe, who dished out an excellent showing in their tour game last week, will partner Nathan Lyon while Mitchel Starc and Josh Hazlewood will take care of the fast bowling responsibilities. Mitchell Marsh could bowl first change.

Australia will start favourites but will they live up to the expectations or will the hosts spring up a surprise in conditions that should suit them? You can follow the live scores and blog of this Sri Lanka vs Australia first Test from ​10am local on Tuesday (2:30pm AEST).

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