*Official* Sri Lanka Tour of Australia 2019

[stephen]

Six ODIs and two T20Is that nobody watched as well (well I watched the SA games on the free river).

 

[halba]

Very easy series win. Not gonna be the most memorable series win by any stretch of the imagination, but given how poor the last 12 months have been for Australian cricket, even minnow bashing works in this context.

Seriously dire performance from Sri Lanka. I did think we'd do well as Sri Lanka didn't have a batsman in the Pujara/Kohli class to stall Australia and their bowling was **** enough that even Australia's batting should've scored runs, but this is basically Bangladesh of 10 years ago level. Very ordinary all round.

Anyway, series ratings:

agree with the player ratings. Cummins and T head were equivalent to like 5 sri lankan players or more. Starc in the 2nd innings was superb again. Bowling lineup is settled for the ashes. Against india, unfortunately bowlers got some really flat conditions.
The batting lineup - still skeptical smith /warner will possess any good form on their return.
Labuschagne looks too underdone to be a long term batting option.
Harris was B grade and will get dropped for khawaja or warner in the ashes. he's just a FC player. Opening combo will be burns with warner or khawaja. Burns deserves long run as he's got all the shots, just needs to deliver.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Another home summer where Lyon has a great start to the summer but then tapers off and has a poor final Test (as shown by his Gabba & SCG records).

Actually all his post-Xmas Tests were pretty ordinary, albeit in part because Khawaja is at slip.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Only once ever have Sri Lanka taken 20 wickets in a Test in Oz (Darwin 2004).

In fact, they've only bowled out Oz in Oz in a single innings 10 times in 15 Tests.

 

[social]

There’s parts of Harris game that are good (plays late for example) but others not so much (short ball, throws away starts)

Renshaw is a better player but it would not surprise me if they chose him as one of 3 openers

Gut feel is that Warner isn’t wanted so will be up to Renshaw to make runs in Shield to give selectors a reason not to pick Gravy

Marnus simply isn’t up to it as a batter & should only be picked if he takes wickets

No way I pick Uzi

Richardson is a lock and wouldn’t mind seeing him replace Haze in test team as I reckon he’s suited to English conditions

 

[Spark]

Harris has to tighten up. You cannot survive as a Test opener being that trigger-happy playing away from your body like he is.

 

[Spark]

Another home summer where Lyon has a great start to the summer but then tapers off and has a poor final Test (as shown by his Gabba & SCG records).

Actually all his post-Xmas Tests were pretty ordinary, albeit in part because Khawaja is at slip.

It's hard to judge him on the last two Tests tbf, he didn't exactly have much to do

 

[vcs]

Sri Lanka are playing a couple of Tests in SA next, not going to be a pretty sight watching Olivier and co. rough them up.

 

[Maximas]

One of the most lame test match series' I've seen for a while, from a SL perspective...

Negatives
- Batting was useless, collapses in each innings
- Mendis and DdS had no impact, leaving big doubts over future batting stocks
- Chandimal has done nothing for ages, does not look to be a no. 3 batsman at all
- Dilruwan Perera confirmed what we all suspected - that unless the pitch is taking decent turn he's got nothing, couldn't contain or bat either
- First choice pace bowlers are as injury prone as anything, and while the reserves showed glimpses of promise (particularly Rajitha) they aren't test class at all as a group
- Catching hasn't improved except for Mendis in the slips

Positives
- Lakmal has genuinely arrived as a test class bowler in the last two series', although I'd been calling this since like 2016
- Chameera and Kumara were bowling some heat and hitting decent areas at the Gabba
- Thirimanne seems to have a technique that can deal with the challenges of batting overseas, needs to rotate strike and latch onto bad balls more (plus not throw away starts) but showed some promise, which is more than can be said of much of the tripe that Dimuth has been opening alongside lately
- Dickwella has shown some good signs in some back-to-the-wall type knocks over the last month or so, just need a bit more consistency from him, glovework wasn't amazing this series either

 

[GotSpin]

Harris has to tighten up. You cannot survive as a Test opener being that trigger-happy playing away from your body like he is.

Surely this is down to coaching...

 

[TheJediBrah]

It's hard to judge him on the last two Tests tbf, he didn't exactly have much to do

Yeah he did. He bowled the most overs of the Australian bowlers. Just because he didn't take many wickets doesn't mean he didn't have much to do.

 

[Burgey]

Lol, cue TJB commencing another campaign for Spud Holland or ETOH SOK to replace Lyon.

 

[the big bambino]

Seen handscomb bowl a bit of spin. Better technique than his batting.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Holland has had his chances and comprehensively failed to make use of them. Being outbowled by Marnus in the UAE is just embarrasing

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lol, cue TJB commencing another campaign for Spud Holland or ETOH SOK to replace Lyon.

Seen handscomb bowl a bit of spin. Better technique than his batting.

Actually I was leaning toward bringing Maxwell in for frontline spinner and to strengthen the batting. He can do what Lyon did this series with the ball tbh.

That will also allow us to play James Pattinson as a 4th seamer when fit. Then with Finch and Handscomb to come back into the middle order for the Ashes and Holland as back up spinner we'll be well placed.

Team would be perfect if we can get Paine out and bring in a young keeper like that Sam Harper guy who made some very nice 30s in the Big Bash.

 

[trundler]

Filthy part time spin will be a major downgrade. That said, fit Patto and a decent spinner who can bat a bit (in the Trevor Bailey mould) with a WK bat with more gears than painter 6 would be awesome.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Filthy part time spin will be a major downgrade. That said, fit Patto and a decent spinner who can bat a bit (in the Trevor Bailey mould) with a WK bat with more gears than painter 6 would be awesome.

Protip: ignore absolutely everything TJB says regarding Nathsn Lyon, he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about on that one.

Gazza forever, part time shite never

 

[Borges]

What is all this crap. trying to fix things that are not broken?
Replacements for Lyon and Paine are not the most pressing concerns with this team; replacing Lyon would be madness.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Filthy part time spin will be a major downgrade. That said, fit Patto and a decent spinner who can bat a bit (in the Trevor Bailey mould) with a WK bat with more gears than painter 6 would be awesome.

What is all this crap. trying to fix things that are not broken?
Replacements for Lyon and Paine are not the most pressing concerns with this team; replacing Lyon would be madness.

clearly joking, simmer down

 

[trundler]

Well no one realistically wants to immediately replace Paine and Lyon but it's a hypothetical scenario in which they play 4 seamers.