Australia in Sri Lanka

Australia will be touring Sri Lanka shortly for the first time since 2004.

The tour will include 2 T20I's, 5 ODIs and 3 tests.

The following squad was selected for Australia:

Shane Watson, Phillip Hughes, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (capt), Michael Hussey, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Brad Haddin (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, Trent Copeland, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon, Michael Beer

The notable exclusion is Steven Smith. The selectors have finally realised that picking a player as a specialist fielder will not work - his bowling nor his batting are adequate for test selection. His next test will probably be as a specialist batsman at some stage in the future if he is ever to play tests for Australia.

Copeland and Pattinson are the rookie fast bowlers that have been selected, Copeland has been particularly good in first class cricket, with Australia having a lot of fast bowling options to pick from, he was the one that was given the nod. Pattinson is a young bolter and there are some big expectations on him too. His brother played for England a couple of years ago, but James is born in Australia and has played all his cricket here.

Nathan Lyon, the South Australia off break bowler has been strangely selected, just as Michael Beer and this series will probably ruin both of them... no surprises there. Hauritz is still injured and Krejza is still rubbish.

Harris is back and Bollinger has not been picked! But it looks a good decision, Dougie really struggles to maintain his intensity, while Harris is probably one of the fastest bowlers in the world at the moment.

Tim Paine has not been picked at all, but we do see Marsh and Khawaja included, one of the will play. While Hughes will open, he has been in fantastic form and hopefully he can translate his talent into runs. I won't write the kid off just yet! Warner is also backing off from a double ton in a first class game vs Zim A and is proving his credentials in the longer form - Hughes will have competition that's for sure.


All in all, both teams are struggling for form in the longer format. SL will have home advantage and even though they do have better spin talent, none of the options really match Murali. Should be a decent series.

I still make the Lankans favourites at home Sam , I think Australia will battle to bowl them out.  The Aussie selectors had to make changes after the stick they took after the Ashes annihilation , but the new guys don't look world beaters do they?   It could be a long haul before we see Australia winning consistently again.

Edited by Sledger - 27 July 2011 at 6:48am

Conditions will be pretty uncomfortable won't they ?  I'd have thought July/August in Sri Lanka would be murderously hot and humid !  If so , it'll be a gruelling tour for the Aussies.

Home conditions are an advantage but honestly Sri lanka don't have too many people whom Australia will worry about Sledge, there is no Murali, there in no Malinga in tests, the batting is all about Mahela and Sanga and to an extent Dilshan, there is nothing in the lankan team that would worry the Aussies too much.

As pointed out by Mikey, the Aussie batting and pace bowling still appear to be pretty good and I'd fancy Australia to beat the Lankans. It's the monsoon season so expect some rains and some time lost and cloudy conditions in Sri lanka, but then they play every year during this season!

very ordinary performance by  Australia in the first T20 game, they have had no answers to the srilankan spin and were blown away by Dilshan in the first innings.

Hopefully we will see much better performances in the ODI's and tests with the likes of Clarke, Ponting and Hussey featuring. There is still another t20 game though.

Saw the match - Cameron White had no idea what to do with the field. It could be a long hard tour for the Ausseis

Aussies do not have an answer to Lanka's spinners here, I'm watching the match and after such a great start given by Watson the Aussies are all over the place 123/6 after 17 overs, can they pull this off???? 35 needed off 18.

Sledger, Milky is right, the heat won't worry the Aussies but the rest of your post is correct.  As much as I think Sri Lanka relies heavily on Dilshan, Jayawardena, Sangakkara and now no real world beating bowler that Murali is out, I still think they will pose problems to the Australians due to the fact that they are unsettled.  If they get Watson early, it could be a very easy tour because for sometime now, he seems their only batsman likely to get runs, along with Hussey.

Mendis tends to do that when he's new to a set of batsmen. After the same batsman has played him a couple of time he gets found out. I've seen him bamboozle Dravid the first time Dravid played him, but I doubt the same would happen again.
Nonetheless, Australia were cruising until that catch - big breakthrough for SL.

The ODIs will be closer and I expect the Australians to win with Ponting , Clarke and Hussey back. I suspect Smith will not play for Australia for a while (nor should White, who isn't selected anyway) and I don't think Johnson should be playing any T20 at all. Nannes should have been picked.

Bollinger and Nannes have to be 2 of the best T20 bowlers in the world. Australia actually have a fantastic T20 side, yet they keep playing the wrong team. Mike Hussey must play, although it's fair enough he was rested. When you think about the real talent Australia produces in T20, then you must wonder why they lost this series and what went wrong. In limited overs cricket, Australia is still a very good side. It's much easier to hide confidence and consistency issues in that form of the game.

Originally posted by Mikey Mendis tends to do that when he's new to a set of batsmen. After the same batsman has played him a couple of time he gets found out. I've seen him bamboozle Dravid the first time Dravid played him, but I doubt the same would happen again. .

But the main thing is Australia always seems to struggle against any decent spinner.

That was rather one sided and again confirms what I've always thought - one dayers just can't compete with test cricket.
              The return of Ponting and Clarke has solidified what was a very flakey batting line up in those T20's , but let's be brutally honest , the bowling was dross !

The sooner Australia find some new selectors who have a plan , the better off they'll be.

Tahir is a journeyman cricketer, I doubt he'll show the commitment to play long-term. That's my gut feeling anyway.

Perhaps you're right, but playing for SAF is not a very settled life either! It will be interesting to see how committed he is. Rudolph was a victim of the quota system, now that the SAF team has integrated quite a few Asian and Coloured players you'd think that the quota system can be discarded...