Australia will be looking to local legend and one-time bogeyman Muttiah Muralitharan to inspire them to success on his home patch as the world’s No. 1 Test team begin a three-match series in Sri Lanka this week.
Steve Smith’s side will be desperate to reverse a poor recent away record against teams from the subcontinent when play begins in Pallekele tomorrow, as India breathe down their necks in the race for Test supremacy.
However, while Australia’s fast bowlers have been key to their success on home soil in recent years, their less celebrated spinners will have to step up to the plate against a Sri Lanka side who have been struggling of late.
Veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon and slow left-armer Steve O’Keefe are both expected to be named in tomorrow’s starting lineup after performing strongly in the warm-ups.
Both have benefited from working with Muralitharan, the leading wicket-taker in the history of Test match cricket who has been hired by the Australians as a consultant for the Sri Lanka tour.
Muralitharan once refused to tour Australia after then-Australian prime minister John Howard called him a “chucker,” but Smith and Australian coach Darren Lehmann have been full of praise for his influence on Lyon and O’Keefe.
O’Keefe bagged 10 wickets in a warm-up match in Colombo last week. Lyon was also impressive as he took two wickets in a tidy second innings spell.
“It’s great to have someone like that helping our spinners in this series, to give us that insight,” Smith said after Australia’s arrival on the island. “He’s been really good around the group so far, and he’s enjoying his time with us.”
Australia’s last outing to the subcontinent saw them lose all four Tests against India in 2013 and they also lost both matches when Pakistan hosted them for a two-Test series in 2014 in the Persian Gulf.
Sri Lanka are seen as weaker opponents, undermined by the retirements of several star names in the last two years.
However, Craig McDermott, who recently stepped down as Australia’s bowling coach, said the Baggy Greens would not be taking their opponents lightly.
“They [Sri Lanka] are in their own country, so everyone always plays better in their own country, we all know that,” McDermott told reporters. “Australia don’t traditionally play well in the subcontinent, away from home, so they have got some things to prove, Darren Lehmann has got some things to prove.”
Since Australia’s last tour of the nation in 2011, Sri Lanka’s two most prolific batsmen, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, have both retired and the team have been sliding down the Test rankings.
Sri Lanka have only just returned home from a disastrous tour of England, where they failed to win any of their nine Tests and limited overs internationals.
Their squad for Pallekele has three uncapped bowlers, including pacers Asitha Fernando and Roshane Silva and spinner Lakshan Sandakan.
Sri Lanka last won a Test series against Australia back in 1999, when Muralitharan was the team’s chief destroyer.
The hosts’ skipper, Angelo Mathews, has acknowledged that the tourists will present a formidable — but not impossible — challenge.
“Although playing against the Aussies at home, we all know that they are a tough side,” he said. “While playing against the Aussies we should be brave and play positively, and if we do that we can beat them.”
After the match in Pallekele, the second Test is to be held in Galle on Aug. 4-8 and the third is to be in Colombo on Aug. 13-17.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but