Main hope: Kusal Mendis made a fighting unbeaten century in the first Test against New Zealand, and registered more than 1000 runs in 2018.
A dry and bouncy Gabba wicket is likely to face Sri Lanka as it takes on Australia today in the first of a two-Test series.
Temperatures in the low to mid 30C are forecast for the five-day, day-night Test in Brisbane, and the tourists will encounter the Australian pacemen on a traditionally lively pitch. The Sri Lankans go in as underdogs but the Australians are coming off a disheartening series loss to India and their batting has been exposed as very brittle in the top order.
To arrest this, Australia has rung in the changes by bringing in Queenslander Joe Burns to join teammates Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne in the top order. Burns and Khawaja will rather forget their performances in the horror series in Sri Lanka, which Sri Lanka won 3-0. However, Australia’s batting is bolstered by the inclusion of Kurtis Patterson, who scored twin centuries against the Sri Lankans in the three-day warm-up day-night match in Hobart.
It was not an impressive start for Sri Lanka Down Under, but the team has the history of a win against the West Indies in the last pink-ball Test they played against the West Indies.
Sri Lanka will pin a lot of hopes on its batting, particularly on the form of Dimuth Karunaratne (743) and Kusal Mendis (1023) who scored heavily in the last calendar year. The side will miss the stability of the seasoned Angelo Matthews, who cut short the tour of New Zealand due to injury.
Captain Dinesh Chandimal told CricInfo he wanted the batsmen to dig deep and post first-innings totals of more than 300 to give the bowlers a chance of repeating the success India enjoyed in their historic series victory.
“That’s the one area we’ll have to improve,” Chandimal said. “We have done well in New Zealand in both Tests, especially in the second innings. We just want to start well whether bowling or batting. We learnt from that last series and guys have some game plans. If they can take it out to the middle it will give us a good start.
“Our fast bowlers are in good shape and if we can get more than 300 that will be great from the batting unit. The India bowling unit was really good, especially between overs 40-80. That’s why they won the series. As a team we just want to do that as well,” Chandimal told Cricinfo.
Sri Lanka’s bowling attack is likely to comprise three pacemen, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera and Larihu Kumara, and one front-line spinner – Dilruwan Perera. The team will sorely miss the retired left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who terrorised the Australians in the three Test-series in 2016.
The likely teams are;
Australia: 1 Marcus Harris, 2 Joe Burns 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Travis Head, 6 Kurtis Patterson, 7 Tim Paine (Capt.), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Jhye Richardson, 11 Nathan Lyon.
Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Lahiru Thirimanne or Kusal Perera, 3 Dinesh Chandimal (Capt.), 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Roshen Silva, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Niroshan Dickwella (WK), 8 Dilruwan Perera, 9 Suranga Lakmal, 10 Dushmantha Chameera, 11 Lahiru Kumara.
Members of the Sri Lanka Sports Association of Queensland will take part in the anthem ceremony and flag-raising before the start of of play today at 1pm.
