The Warne-Muralitharan trophy which Sri Lanka won so convincingly by whitewashing Steve Smith’s Australians 3-0 in 2016 was handed back to Australia with hardly a fight when they lost the two-match Test series 2-0 in Australia. The trophy named after two of the greatest spinners in the game is a symbol of supremacy between the two teams and has been contested for since 2007-08 with Australia being the holders by winning four of the five series it has been played for so far.
That a near half-strength Australian side sans Steve Smith and David Warner (both serving bans) and Josh Hazlewood (injured) was able to steam-roll Sri Lanka in both Tests well inside four days goes to show the disparity between the two sides.
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| Lahiru Thirimanne batted the longest for Sri Lanka in the series facing 314 balls. |
At the commencement of the series Sri Lanka fancied their chances against a depleted Australian side led by wicket-keeper/batsman Tim Paine, but once again it was their brittle batting that contributed largely to the loss with only two batsmen making fifties while in contrast four Australians completed hundreds.
Travis Head, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja and Kurtis Patterson, the four centurions in the Canberra Test and the series would certainly have not done any harm to their careers by including their names in the shortlist for Australia’s Ashes series in England which follows after the World Cup. The Lankan Test series was their final chance to push themselves for places and they did not miss out.
The incompetence of the Lankan batsmen to handle short-pitched bowling was a major factor and the absence of their most experienced Test batsman Angelo Mathews (injured) only compounded their misery. Sri Lanka were completely outplayed at the Gabba on Australia’s bounciest pitch with the pink ball proving unplayable under lights.
All thoughts of trying to wear down the Australian bowlers like the Indian batsmen (especially Cheteswar Pujara) had done simply flew out of the window with none of the top or middle order batsmen having the will power and the skill to survive in the middle against Pat Cummins and Jhye Richardson in the first Test which they lost inside three days by an innings and 40 runs.
The longest period any Lankan batsman occupied the crease in the entire series in one innings was for 105 balls by Lahiru Thirimanne while scoring 41 in the second Test.
Canberra’s first-ever Test was reduced into a four-day affair when Sri Lanka suffered another heavy thrashing by 366 runs. On this occasion Australia’s misfiring spearhead Mitchell Starc who had struggled against India and at the Gabba came roaring back into form with a match bag of ten wickets to have the Lankan batters ducking and weaving at balls delivered at 150plus on a track that was a far cry from what they experienced at Brisbane.
Two of the batsmen opener Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera were both hit on their helmets thus displaying their incompetence towards handling the short-pitched ball. Perera in fact ducked at a ball that hardly rose above stump height and had to retire hurt.
At the end of the series Sri Lanka were still left with question marks on who their permanent no. 3 should be. Captain Dinesh Chandimal who tried to fill the role was exposed very badly making only 24 runs in four innings with a top score of 15. He is not a no. 3 batter as his career record reveals. Chandimal has scored the majority of his Test runs batting at either no. 5 or 6 where he has scored nine of his 11 Test centuries. It is foolhardy to ask Chandimal to bat at three even though he is keen to lead from the front.
Sri Lanka has been struggling for the past four years to fill the massive void created by the retirement of Kumar Sangakkara at no. 3 and at the moment they don’t seem to have a batsman suitable enough to seal that crucial position. This has exposed the middle order to the opening bowlers and as a result Sri Lanka have been finding it hard to come up with totals that could give their bowlers an opportunity to bowl out the opposition.
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| The four Australian century-makers in the series all from the Canberra Test (from left): Travis Head, Kurtis Patterson, Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja. |
Suranga Lakmal was Sri Lanka’s stand out bowler in the first Test, but his absence in the second (stiff back) coupled with injuries to Lahiru Kumara and Dushmantha Chameera – all three of whom figured at the Gabba left Sri Lanka woefully short of an experienced fast bowling attack for Canberra. In the circumstances the three seamers they fielded had the experience of only five Tests and 14 wicket between them, with uncapped Chamika Karunaratne rushed straight into the Test barely 24 hours after arriving from Colombo. The inexperience in the bowling showed when Sri Lanka managed to capture only eight Australian wickets in the entire match whilst conceding 730 runs.
Having lost 1-0 in New Zealand and 2-0 in Australia Sri Lanka face a much more sterner test when they travel to South Africa later this week for three Tests, 5 ODIs and three T20Is where they will face a pace barrage from Steyn, Rabada, Olivier and Philander, the quartet that dismantled the Pakistani batting to sweep the Test series 3-0. South Africa will certainly have that 2-0 whitewash defeat against spin on Sri Lanka’s dust bowl pitches last year at the back of their minds and will be eagerly waiting to see how the Lankan batsmen handle their bowling on the fast and bouncy pitches which they are likely to prepare for the upcoming Test series.
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