**Official** Australia in Sri Lanka Jan - Feb 2025

[halba]

Been a long time that SL has found a great spinner. Last was Herath- he truly was great(400 + wickets!). Prabath, looks village here, hes probably well past his prime at 33, and only 110 wickets, not an all time great at all.

Also been an age since SL had a proper pace attack. The days of Vaas or Malinga are long gone. Their pace attack is extremely mediocre, no better than a local cricket club in Australia. The pacers havent had a single wicket all series, shows how dire they are.

 

[Starfighter]

Yeah, they’ve shown some encouraging signs prior to this series

Still maintain that they’ve done themselves no favours with these pitches as their spinners aren’t great

Jayasuriya had taken 71 wickets in nine matches at this ground before this series. I'm sure they expected the pitches to be a bit tricker and the Aus batsmen less attuned to their gameplan. The two NZ tests would have given them some confidence, especially after that NZ side went on to hammer India.

 

[halba]

Jayasuriya had taken 71 wickets in nine matches at this ground before this series. I'm sure they expected the pitches to be a bit tricker and the Aus batsmen less attuned to their gameplan. The two NZ tests would have given them some confidence, especially after that NZ side went on to hammer India.

yep, thats a strange decision by the pitch curator/ SL board to oversee these kind of flat wickets. Its gross negligence/ incompetence for them, great for Australia.

 

[Molehill]

It's not all about results though. They are entertainers and entertain they must

I'm trying to think like an absolute fraud of a coach and a captain here. Yes batting out the whole day is the sensible and logical thing to do even with the risk of needing to tolerate another cheap jab from those Barmy Army wankers

Totally with you here, would love my team to do that. I'm so done with stupid declarations (well, maybe stick them in with an hour left to play).

 

[Gob]

Been a long time that SL has found a great spinner. Last was Herath- he truly was great(400 + wickets!). Prabath, looks village here, hes probably well past his prime at 33, and only 110 wickets, not an all time great at all.

Also been an age since SL had a proper pace attack. The days of Vaas or Malinga are long gone. Their pace attack is extremely mediocre, no better than a local cricket club in Australia. The pacers havent had a single wicket all series, shows how dire they are.

I know I shouldn't but Malinga has never been a consistent part of the test side

 

[Qlder]

yep, thats a strange decision by the pitch curator/ SL board to oversee these kind of flat wickets. Its gross negligence/ incompetence for them, great for Australia.

You keep calling these flat pitches but Sri Lanka has been bowled out for 165, 247 and 257.

 

[cascade]

I've been out all night & missed most of the partnership, which sucks because Smith and Carey tonning up is the only thing that can overcome my disappointment in how underwhelming Sri Lanka have been. Full credit to the Aus team for how they've performed so far, but hard not to think Sri Lanka have let themselves down as well.

I was waiting for this test to play out to bring this up, but it feels relevant now to remark on how much Australia have improved their batting in Asia in recent years. Highest runs per wicket of all teams since the start of 2020, compared to near lowest in the 2010s. Probably lowest if you remove the 2011 Sri Lanka tour. When you break it down, what really stands out is the number of players who have managed to average over 40 for a series, and the runs added by guys lower down the order. Even with a terrible BGT in there, Carey has managed to offer so much more than the keepers Aus have had since Gilchrist. Speaks to how well the team have prepared & improved their approach.

 

[Spark]

I've been out all night & missed most of the partnership, which sucks because Smith and Carey tonning up is the only thing that can overcome my disappointment in how underwhelming Sri Lanka have been. Full credit to the Aus team for how they've performed so far, but hard not to think Sri Lanka have let themselves down as well.

I was waiting for this test to play out to bring this up, but it feels relevant now to remark on how much Australia have improved their batting in Asia in recent years. Highest runs per wicket of all teams since the start of 2020, compared to near lowest in the 2010s. Probably lowest if you remove the 2011 Sri Lanka tour. When you break it down, what really stands out is the number of players who have managed to average over 40 for a series, and the runs added by guys lower down the order. Even with a terrible BGT in there, Carey has managed to offer so much more than the keepers Aus have had since Gilchrist. Speaks to how well the team have prepared & improved their approach.

The difference in how they play spin in the subcontinent vs pre-2017 is just night and day, really. Junking all the conventional wisdom about how you have to play spin, received down the years through Channel 9 commentary propagandising, has done absolute wonders really ever since Khawaja in particular decided to stop trying to play spin in the traditional "Australian" way.

 

[halba]

You keep calling these flat pitches but Sri Lanka has been bowled out for 165, 247 and 257.

SL are in peak minnow era though. What's their test ranking average past half decade(it's close to the bottom). Spin attack nowhere near that great and a flat pitch and inept bats.

These Aus same batters struggled heaps with Ash and Jadeja in the last BGT in India which had mostly turners.

 

[halba]

I know I shouldn't but Malinga has never been a consistent part of the test side

Yep I note this. Mostly in white ball. But they never really had anyone after Vaas it seems. All pacers mediocre since. Aus batters do struggle against pace from around the world (see The likes of Rabada, Jansen and of course the Bumrah). SL having no pace bowler doesn't help.

 

[Nintendo]

Hard to credit some of the revisionism regarding Smith's tons in the BGT. They were scored when the game and series were in the balance. The Brisbane pitch was tricky, he came in early and struggled for his first 50 iirc. The Melbourne ton set Aus up for that match. All against a red hot Bumrah too.

Smith batted like a smith impersonator in that Brisbane test for the first 50 runs.

 

[Gob]

Smith batted like a smith impersonator in that Brisbane test for the first 50 runs.

Hi Harsha

 

[Molehill]

SL are in peak minnow era though. What's their test ranking average past half decade(it's close to the bottom). Spin attack nowhere near that great and a flat pitch and inept bats.

These Aus same batters struggled heaps with Ash and Jadeja in the last BGT in India which had mostly turners.

SL literally beat NZ 2-0 (one an utter thrashing) on this exact same ground less than 5 months ago. The same NZ that then won 3-0 in India. Yeah, it doesn't exactly add up, but SL are hardly in peak minnow era.

Australia have been very good in these 2 Tests, but for some reason, SL have been very much below par.

 

[Nintendo]

SL are in peak minnow era though. What's their test ranking average past half decade(it's close to the bottom). Spin attack nowhere near that great and a flat pitch and inept bats.

These Aus same batters struggled heaps with Ash and Jadeja in the last BGT in India which had mostly turners.

They came closer to this wtc final than India, England and new Zealand but clear minnows.

 

[Gob]

Yep I note this. Mostly in white ball. But they never really had anyone after Vaas it seems. All pacers mediocre since. Aus batters do struggle against pace from around the world (see The likes of Rabada, Jansen and of course the Bumrah). SL having no pace bowler doesn't help.

You are wrong again

This is supposed to be one of Sri Lanka's best periods when it comes to producing fast bowlers. It's a thing that's been going around for a while starting from probably Bangladesh last year. None of that applies to this series of course

 

[quincywagstaff]

The difference in how they play spin in the subcontinent vs pre-2017 is just night and day, really. Junking all the conventional wisdom about how you have to play spin, received down the years through Channel 9 commentary propagandising, has done absolute wonders really ever since Khawaja in particular decided to stop trying to play spin in the traditional "Australian" way.

Can't really remember what the conventional wisdom was, except perhaps not to sweep and to use your feet to get to the ball as much as possible (Ian Chappell was a big advocate of that iirc)?

 

[Spark]

Can't really remember what the conventional wisdom was, except perhaps not to sweep and to use your feet to get to the ball as much as possible (Ian Chappell was a big advocate of that iirc)?

Don't sweep, definitely don't reverse sweep, try to hit the ball over the batsman's head and/or drive down the ground and use your feet at every opportunity.

 

[honestbharani]

Don't sweep, definitely don't reverse sweep, try to hit the ball over the batsman's head and/or drive down the ground and use your feet at every opportunity.

TBF Chappelli always spoke about back foot play as much as front foot play when he says "use your feet" which is a key part of how they play spin now. Its just a common misconception that "use your feet" = "going down the track".

 

[Spark]

TBF Chappelli always spoke about back foot play as much as front foot play when he says "use your feet" which is a key part of how they play spin now. Its just a common misconception that "use your feet" = "going down the track".

Right the point isn't really using your feet isn't important, it's just that the Chappelli doctrine of playing spin really dogmatically limits it you to just playing either drives down the ground off the front foot, or whacking long hops off the back foot. That works just fine in Australia but it's a big reason why, say, Michael Clarke ended up underperforming in the subcontinent.

 

[Shady Slim]

great ton for carey and well deserved