Having comprehensively losing the Warne-Muralidaran Trophy to Sri Lanka, Australia might seem in the dumps, but a positive approach is required if the team is to bounce back.
Despite losing within three days at Galle, there are many ways to go about mounting a consolation victory in the third Test.
There’s also the matter of building up for a massive Australian summer, that will feature South Africa and the impressive Pakistan, who played some exciting and classy cricket in losing to England.
When fans hear of losses on the subcontinent, Australians want to blame the batsmen for an inability to play spin. While it is clear that the Aussies have struggled against Sri Lanka’s tweak attack, the blame cannot be solely placed on them.
Credit must be given to Rangana Herath, Lakshan Sandakan and Dilruwan Perera for bowling as well as their captain could have asked for – rarely were they loose, and the bowling figures reflect that.
However, as international cricketers, the Australians cannot continue to get bogged down by subcontinental spinners who thrive in their home conditions.
Darren Lehmann has recently called for pitch variation for Shield games in order to prepare batsmen better for potential wickets overseas. On paper, this seems ideal, but the condition of the wicket is not the only reason that cricket on the subcontinent is difficult for visiting teams. Oppressive heat and humidity can play its tricks, and the familiarity of this weather gives the home team an upper hand.
Queensland is the only place where we can simulate these conditions, and those early seeds have been planted. The special spin-friendly wickets at the National Performance Centre have been beneficial, with Peter Nevill practicing his wicketkeeping against the Aussie spinners in the offseason. However, the way forward should be a first-class ground in Queensland tailored for spin, in order to give match practice as part of their Shield season.
Preparing the next generation to play fluently in all conditions is obviously a goal for Cricket Australia, and again the foundations are being laid, with Travis Head joining the team ahead of the third Test. While it is unlikely he will play, allowing him to learn to play in foreign conditions is important. Head is among a number of obvious candidates to carry Australia’s batting order in the near future, and others should continue to go on tour with the national squad to experience foreign conditions from early on in their career.
The root of the issue is not entirely in the battin,g however. While Australia’s seamers impressed with their utilisation of reverse swing, the comparison of Australia and Sri Lanka’s spinners leaves a lot to be desired.
In supposedly favourable conditions, the Aussie spinners took 14 wickets while leaking more than four runs an over. This lack of discipline proved fatal, as Sri Lanka constantly took to Nathan Lyon and company.
Smart batting was obviously a large factor, Australian spinners must learn to adapt to the choice of line. On the flat pitches at home, it is common to adopt a straight, defensive off-stump line, simply trying to stem the flow. In Sri Lanka, with the ball spinning in to a predominantly right-handed line-up, Lyon needed to throw it a little wider to introduce uncertainty – luckily, he definitely has the skills to employ this in the future. After all, you can’t get 200 wickets without doing something right.
Steve O’Keefe was promising before he injured his hamstring, while Jon Holland was far too inconsistent on debut, and failed to build pressure. The Sri Lankan trio exhibited a near-perfect display of consistency and accuracy, letting natural variation do the rest.
With the number one Test ranking now within the grasp of England, India and Pakistan, the Aussies need to make amends for their underwhelming performances in Colombo and Galle.
Following this, the future must be the focus.
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