Spark
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Yeah I saw them advertising those yesterday.
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**Official** Australia in Sri Lanka Jan - Feb 2025
- Thread starter Spark
- Start date
morgieb
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Series ratings:
Head 5 - did his job I guess. The aggressive starts helped the guys below him capitalise, even if the contributions were middling on the scorebook.
Khawaja 9 - no Bumrah, no problems. Showed he's still arguably Australia's best slow wicket player and finally got that double that he had hitherto been deprived of.
Labuschagne 2 - looked like he was batting on a different wicket to the rest of the team at times, and in this case this isn't a good thing. Never looked comfortable until the final innings where the game was already won and with Inglis and Webster's recent form and Green coming back in his short-term future has to be in significant doubt.
Smith 10 - it's a pity about his fatal weakness of being unable to get past 140. Seriously though, immense series, his best since 2019 (though granted it was only two innings). After getting dropped immediately after hitting the 10k mark barely gave up a chance until he got out and in the last two months he's looked the best he has in years. Fielding and captaincy was also immaculate. Easy MOTS.
Inglis 7 - the ton in the first Test was close to the easiest ton I've ever seen but it was still a ton on debut, and showed a lot of batting smarts and tempo. Less said about the second Test the better though he did come in at quite a bad time.
Carey 9 - after a middling Border-Gavaskar Trophy and Inglis's first Test ton had led to doubts around his spot, he produced a excellent "you were saying" kind of knock by producing a fantastic knock to define the second Test. Looked well and truly in control throughout and had much better control of the sweep compared to India. Also kept very well in the conditions - he did make the odd mistake but you were going to over there and they weren't all that regular or costly.
Webster 7 - didn't get the chance to do much but the 30-odd was somewhat important in ensuring the second Test collapse could be split up a bit and showed that his offies could be quite handy too. Fielded brilliantly, though the way he claims it may cause controversy down the track.
Starc 8 - if only he could bowl against Sri Lanka all the time. Didn't bowl much due to the conditions but when he did (other than the last innings I guess) he caused a lot of headaches with both the old and new ball. The perfect complement to the two spinners.
Murphy 4 - wasn't awful, but definitely bowled a bit too flat for the conditions and didn't seem to get the drift that Lyon and Kuhnemann were getting. Still once it was clear the second Galle wicket was similar to the first it was a howler to drop him.
Lyon 8 - very well bowled, and if anything he bowled even better than his figures suggested; he had a pretty bad run of LBW decisions and unlike the other two didn't really bowl any pies. Given that his Sri Lanka record was kind of an Achilles heel in his Asian record he needed a really gun series to further burnish his credentials.
Kuhnemann 9 - yes, he almost certainly chucks it and I would've been tempted to no-ball him at some point if I was umpiring. Regardless, he was still extremely effective. He did give the odd 4-ball but he always seemed likely to pick up a key wicket and Sri Lanka never looked too comfortable facing him. The perfect second spinner to have in Asia.
Connolly 1 - useless. He's arguably the side's seventh best spinner and it was clear Smith had no faith in his bowling, and batted like a guy who had only played 4 FC matches prior to selection. He obviously has a future, but he really needs to figure out what his role is before he can get another chance.
Oshada Fernando 1 - no impact in his only Test. Not good enough for the level.
Karunaratne 2 - it ends with a whimper. Continued his recent struggles and had little impact with the bat. It's a sad way to finish a very fine and underappreciated career.
Chandimal 7 - for the most part was probably Sri Lanka's best player. He didn't make a big match-defining score and he did get out in some frustrating ways, but it seemed that unlike the rest of the team he had a plan to score runs and often looked very good. If only he had some better backup.
Mathews 4 - did at least manage a good innings here to briefly threaten to change the tempo of the game, but otherwise batted pretty irresponsibly and was owned by Lyon.
Kamindu Mendis 2 - came crashing down to earth. Had little influence throughout the series and like a few others in the Sri Lankan middle order had a number of soft dismissals. Not sure why he bowled so little given how overbowled certain Sri Lankan spinners were.
de Silva 2 - another who batted irresponsibly and threw his wicket away on a number of occasions. Given he's the captain too, that makes it even worse as he should be leading by example. His tactical nous was quite poor too, he let the game drift far too often and after a while ran out of ideas to get batsmen out.
Kusal Mendis 7 - actually batted really well in the second Test. Did a good job to get Sri Lanka to a semi-respectable score in the first innings and in the second played a really aggressive knock that with a bit more support might've really turned the game on its head. Keeping was decent, but less good than Carey I think.
Jayasuriya 4 - did finally turn around things a bit on Day 3 in the second Test to get another 5-fer at Galle, but before that point was bowling pretty poorly. He did get the occasional ball to turn and bounce but that wasn't too frequent and seemed to be overused and too often seemed to give up on getting the batter out. Woke up far too late to impact the series.
Vandersay 5 - probably a little bit too slow for Test cricket, but (as little as it says) was probably Sri Lanka's most dangerous spinner in the first Test and the one that actually got the ball to spin. Also had a fun cameo with the bat late. Unlucky to get dropped for the second Test given who stayed in.
Peiris 2 - one good spell with the new ball in the second Test, otherwise was very ordinary. Just doesn't look good enough unless the ball is really turning.
Asitha Fernando 1 - it obviously wasn't conductive conditions for the seamers, but even so he was really not good. Was pretty much free runs for Head, Khawaja and Smith.
Nissanka 1 - village against spin bowling. Looked really good against Starc but absolutely horrid against Lyon/Kuhnemann. And that's a huge problem when you're Sri Lankan.
Ramesh Mendis 4 - did build a nice partnership with Kusal in the first innings, but with the ball was pretty ineffective. Had the odd good ball but not enough consistency to really threaten the Australian batters.
Kumara 2 - pretty useless. Had little effect with the ball in the few overs he bowled. Didn't look terrible with the bat, though.
Head 5 - did his job I guess. The aggressive starts helped the guys below him capitalise, even if the contributions were middling on the scorebook.
Khawaja 9 - no Bumrah, no problems. Showed he's still arguably Australia's best slow wicket player and finally got that double that he had hitherto been deprived of.
Labuschagne 2 - looked like he was batting on a different wicket to the rest of the team at times, and in this case this isn't a good thing. Never looked comfortable until the final innings where the game was already won and with Inglis and Webster's recent form and Green coming back in his short-term future has to be in significant doubt.
Smith 10 - it's a pity about his fatal weakness of being unable to get past 140. Seriously though, immense series, his best since 2019 (though granted it was only two innings). After getting dropped immediately after hitting the 10k mark barely gave up a chance until he got out and in the last two months he's looked the best he has in years. Fielding and captaincy was also immaculate. Easy MOTS.
Inglis 7 - the ton in the first Test was close to the easiest ton I've ever seen but it was still a ton on debut, and showed a lot of batting smarts and tempo. Less said about the second Test the better though he did come in at quite a bad time.
Carey 9 - after a middling Border-Gavaskar Trophy and Inglis's first Test ton had led to doubts around his spot, he produced a excellent "you were saying" kind of knock by producing a fantastic knock to define the second Test. Looked well and truly in control throughout and had much better control of the sweep compared to India. Also kept very well in the conditions - he did make the odd mistake but you were going to over there and they weren't all that regular or costly.
Webster 7 - didn't get the chance to do much but the 30-odd was somewhat important in ensuring the second Test collapse could be split up a bit and showed that his offies could be quite handy too. Fielded brilliantly, though the way he claims it may cause controversy down the track.
Starc 8 - if only he could bowl against Sri Lanka all the time. Didn't bowl much due to the conditions but when he did (other than the last innings I guess) he caused a lot of headaches with both the old and new ball. The perfect complement to the two spinners.
Murphy 4 - wasn't awful, but definitely bowled a bit too flat for the conditions and didn't seem to get the drift that Lyon and Kuhnemann were getting. Still once it was clear the second Galle wicket was similar to the first it was a howler to drop him.
Lyon 8 - very well bowled, and if anything he bowled even better than his figures suggested; he had a pretty bad run of LBW decisions and unlike the other two didn't really bowl any pies. Given that his Sri Lanka record was kind of an Achilles heel in his Asian record he needed a really gun series to further burnish his credentials.
Kuhnemann 9 - yes, he almost certainly chucks it and I would've been tempted to no-ball him at some point if I was umpiring. Regardless, he was still extremely effective. He did give the odd 4-ball but he always seemed likely to pick up a key wicket and Sri Lanka never looked too comfortable facing him. The perfect second spinner to have in Asia.
Connolly 1 - useless. He's arguably the side's seventh best spinner and it was clear Smith had no faith in his bowling, and batted like a guy who had only played 4 FC matches prior to selection. He obviously has a future, but he really needs to figure out what his role is before he can get another chance.
Oshada Fernando 1 - no impact in his only Test. Not good enough for the level.
Karunaratne 2 - it ends with a whimper. Continued his recent struggles and had little impact with the bat. It's a sad way to finish a very fine and underappreciated career.
Chandimal 7 - for the most part was probably Sri Lanka's best player. He didn't make a big match-defining score and he did get out in some frustrating ways, but it seemed that unlike the rest of the team he had a plan to score runs and often looked very good. If only he had some better backup.
Mathews 4 - did at least manage a good innings here to briefly threaten to change the tempo of the game, but otherwise batted pretty irresponsibly and was owned by Lyon.
Kamindu Mendis 2 - came crashing down to earth. Had little influence throughout the series and like a few others in the Sri Lankan middle order had a number of soft dismissals. Not sure why he bowled so little given how overbowled certain Sri Lankan spinners were.
de Silva 2 - another who batted irresponsibly and threw his wicket away on a number of occasions. Given he's the captain too, that makes it even worse as he should be leading by example. His tactical nous was quite poor too, he let the game drift far too often and after a while ran out of ideas to get batsmen out.
Kusal Mendis 7 - actually batted really well in the second Test. Did a good job to get Sri Lanka to a semi-respectable score in the first innings and in the second played a really aggressive knock that with a bit more support might've really turned the game on its head. Keeping was decent, but less good than Carey I think.
Jayasuriya 4 - did finally turn around things a bit on Day 3 in the second Test to get another 5-fer at Galle, but before that point was bowling pretty poorly. He did get the occasional ball to turn and bounce but that wasn't too frequent and seemed to be overused and too often seemed to give up on getting the batter out. Woke up far too late to impact the series.
Vandersay 5 - probably a little bit too slow for Test cricket, but (as little as it says) was probably Sri Lanka's most dangerous spinner in the first Test and the one that actually got the ball to spin. Also had a fun cameo with the bat late. Unlucky to get dropped for the second Test given who stayed in.
Peiris 2 - one good spell with the new ball in the second Test, otherwise was very ordinary. Just doesn't look good enough unless the ball is really turning.
Asitha Fernando 1 - it obviously wasn't conductive conditions for the seamers, but even so he was really not good. Was pretty much free runs for Head, Khawaja and Smith.
Nissanka 1 - village against spin bowling. Looked really good against Starc but absolutely horrid against Lyon/Kuhnemann. And that's a huge problem when you're Sri Lankan.
Ramesh Mendis 4 - did build a nice partnership with Kusal in the first innings, but with the ball was pretty ineffective. Had the odd good ball but not enough consistency to really threaten the Australian batters.
Kumara 2 - pretty useless. Had little effect with the ball in the few overs he bowled. Didn't look terrible with the bat, though.
Spark
Global Moderator
This is only true in Sri Lanka for some reason (though it's really really true in that case)
Starfighter
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I think Connolly's a case of our set up picking and trying to use someone as the player they want them to be, not the player they actually are. Making Hardie into a limited overs player (and IMO ruining a potential test career) and having Green bowl bouncers because he's tall are other examples.
Burgey
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Yeah I think they are mate
TheJediBrah
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Lyon isn't top 100
There were 50 Shield spinners in the 90s better than him
Peter McIntyre, Brad Oldroyd > Lyon
There were 50 Shield spinners in the 90s better than him
Peter McIntyre, Brad Oldroyd > Lyon
trundler
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GoodAreasShane
Cricketer Of The Year
I will not ever hear a bad word about 1995/96 Sheffield Shield final batting hero Peter McIntyre here thank you very much
ataraxia
International Coach
He's already better than Kumble and definitely top 10 all-time.
TheJediBrah
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Jamie Stewart > Lyon > Kumble > Ashwin
Neser took an impressive 3-72 in the second innings to add to his 3-32 in the first, with Xavier Bartlett taking seven wickets across the match.
Both would be on the reserve list of bowlers for the 2025 ashes in November? Neser can bat.
Sam konstas in pretty dire form now. I doubt he will slot back. They are simply going to have to find someone else - Renshaw scored a ton, so hed be the top choice now as hes a natural opener against Pace.
Both would be on the reserve list of bowlers for the 2025 ashes in November? Neser can bat.
Sam konstas in pretty dire form now. I doubt he will slot back. They are simply going to have to find someone else - Renshaw scored a ton, so hed be the top choice now as hes a natural opener against Pace.
Qlder
International Regular
And what does that have to do with Aussies in Sri Lanka tour?
Team context only. Ashes thread wont be open for a while.
Victor Ian
International Coach
I think I've solved Halba's selecting based on form dilemma. If Halba waits till the end of the Ashes to select his team for the first test, I think he'll find more agreement from us.
Gob
International Coach
Short is very uninspiring tbh. Extremely average cricketer